


The Scars of War

by Total_whovian



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: F/M, New Caprica, post-New Caprica
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-07
Updated: 2016-03-06
Packaged: 2018-05-25 04:59:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 20
Words: 56,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6181237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Total_whovian/pseuds/Total_whovian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>President Roslin is stronger than most people think, and when it comes to the Cylon occupation on New Caprica, she made sure they knew she would not break. That does not go over well when the cylons decide that they want her to talk. Please read the warning as there is some sensitive material to come.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This does take place during the occupation of New Caprica and will feature torture and rape (maybe not in this chapter, but in others to come). This is not a story for children, and should be avoided by those that are offended by these types of themes.

5 Days 

5 days. 5 days ago, New Caprica was invaded by the cylons. 5 days ago, the Galactica and Pegasus left us. 5 days ago, Gaius Baltar surrendered and let the cylons take complete control. 5 days ago, people started disappearing. 5 days ago, I was going to invite Bill down. 5 days ago, I was taken by the cylons.

They keep the cells blindingly bright, which makes it nearly impossible to see who enters without letting your eyes adjust. I am fed, but I cannot say the same for any other prisoners they might be holding. I was loaded into the back of a truck and brought to the detention center with about 14 other people. We were all unloaded and escorted to cells, but the cells went on forever, and I do not know how many of them are occupied. As I sit with my back to the door and my hands over my eyes, I realize how much I miss my chair, my position, my home…Bill. I cannot help but let my thoughts wander to our night under the stars of New Caprica. We had laid there for hours just embracing each other and we stayed like that into the early hours of the morning.

I can hear footsteps approaching the cell, and I can only pray to the Gods of Kobol that I might find Bill’s embrace again. I can hear the handle turn and the door creek open, but I cannot see through the blinding light. I hear the scrape of a chair and then I feel a hand on my shoulder guiding my upwards and towards it. As I look up, I can see one of the D’Anna models in front of me, and I can feel another cylon behind me. Judging by the strength and ease I was lifted, I am assuming one of the male models is behind me. 

D’Anna clears her throat and gestures towards me with an outstretched hand, which I quickly realize is holding my glasses. I instantly take them and place them on my nose and everything suddenly comes into focus. I look D’Anna directly in the eye and can only see determination. Whatever she wants, she is prepared to take it no matter what, but I know the same determination is reflected back in my own eyes. I have already helped to form the beginnings of a group of rebels before I was taken, and I will fight these machines even if it takes my every breath. 

“We want you to tell us everything you know about Earth,” D’Anna spoke.

She had started to pace as she talked; however, when she said “Earth” she stopped to stare at me. I refused to answer and glared back at her. I was not going to give them anything they wanted, even if that meant spending the rest of my life in this cell. I remained silent as she came closer to me and I am barely able to suppress the chill that wants to crawl its way down my spine. I can feel the breath of the male cylon brush against my neck.

“You might want to answer me,” D’Anna spoke again, “because if he takes over, you are going to want to talk to make him stop.”

I can feel him hands begin to move from my shoulders down my arms, coming to a stop at my elbows. Slowly, his hands travel from my elbows to my stomach and then they stop at the curve of my breasts. My stomach turns as I realize what his method of extraction would be if I did not talk, but I will not become a traitor like Baltar just to spare my dignity. I may not be the President of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol anymore, but I will protect these people as if I were still their leader. I clench my jaw and stare back at D’Anna with defiance fueling the fire behind my eyes.

“We will give you some time to think about your answer, after all, we have all the time in the world,” D’Anna spoke as she turned towards the door, “but remember that this is your chance to answer on your own accord. I am sure that Leoben will be more than willing to help you with your answer.”

As D’Anna walked out of the cell, the cylon behind me, who was probably Leoben, lifted me from the chair. He had put his hands under my arms to pick me up and lead me to my corner. I wait for him to let me go and follow D’Anna out, but he lingers behind me and I can do nothing but stay still. His left hand moves down and across my stomach, securing me to him, while his right hand travels to my shoulder. I can feel his breath on my neck and then my hair is swept to the side as fingers brush against my neck. The tenderness with which he is touching me brings back memories of Bill. He would do the same thing when he would sneak into the school after a long day. After all of the children had left, he would quietly enter the tent while I was cleaning up and snake his arms around my waist , kissing my neck as he tightened his grip around me.

“Are you thinking of him?” Leoben’s voice rung in my ears as he spoke.

I could only gasp as he tightened his arm around me and forced the breath from my lungs.

“Did you really think that we wouldn’t find out?” Leoben’s hands dug into my sides as he continued to speak, “Baltar told us all about how friendly the two of you have become, and he said there was a particular development in your relationship during the Groundbreaking Ceremony. Not to mention the sounds he would hear coming from your tent every time the Admiral would come to visit…We know everything about you Laura, and we will break you.”

I felt his arms tighten even further before he abruptly dropped me to the ground. He ripped my glasses from my face and headed towards the exit with the chair dragging behind him. The cell door slams shut and I can only sit and hope that I can catch the breath that he had robbed me of earlier. I am shaking now, and I know it has everything to do with the fact that they know about Bill. I thought we had been careful, but we were enjoying the freedom of my new job. Although Baltar was an incompetent ass when it came to the presidency, he still allowed me to start the relationship my position had previously denied. When Bill comes back, I do not care if I am the President or not, I will make sure he knows how much I love him.

Love, something I haven’t let myself feel since my family died. I smile as I think of my sisters and their baby shower, and then I think of my father. He was a great man who always came through in the end, especially when my mother died. We had our problem when she was diagnosed and even more so when she began her Diloxin treatments. It was heart wrenching to watch her grow increasingly weaker as death strengthened its hold on her frail frame. She was strong until the very end, and when I broke, my father and sisters helped to put me back together.

There is a sudden crashing noise in the hallway, and I leave my thoughts to listen for anything else. I think I can hear Col. Tigh’s voice, but then there is only silence, so I brush it off as my imagination.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter definitely has a rape scene in it, so the rating applies to this chapter in particular.

One Month and 5 Days

It’s been a month since the cylons threatened me in this hell hole. It’s been a month since Leoben and D’Anna had given me an ultimatum. It’s been a month since I was given a choice between my people and my dignity. It’s been a month since Leoben made his intensions clear. It’s been a month since I made my decision. It’s been a month and 5 days since Bill left. It’s been a month and 5 days since my life changed.

My second daily meal has just been delivered through a slot in my cell door, and I just look at it. I know that if I don’t eat it I will be taken to their hospital wing by Doral to be hooked up to an IV. I tried not eating for the first week, but Doral found me past out in my cell and I woke up tied to a hospital bed with a needle in her arm. They don’t want me to die until I speak, and that makes me want to die just to piss them off; however, if I die, I know they will drag somebody else in here and they may not be as strong. 

I decide to take the food to ensure that I only have to see the cylons when necessary. Luckily, I have only seen Doral in this past month and I have not had to worry about Leoben and his advances. I know that I am simply putting off the inevitable, but I can’t help but embrace the little time I have left before he tries to break me. If I am being honest with myself, I am terrified to face Leoben and whatever torture he may bring. He should be coming to ask me soon, and I wish time would stop. I don’t mind spending eternity in this single moment if it means that I never have to see him again. 

As if the Gods of Kobol wanted to punish me, I hear the heavy metal latch of the cell door slide open. I turn towards the door and the blinding light has my eyes watering, but my ears catch the steps of boots on the cement ground. As the figure gets closer, the light outlines his large frame that I have come to dread. It’s Leoben and I am so focused on trying not the visibly shake that I only notice D’Anna when she starts to talk to me.

“Laura, have you decided to give us what we want?” D’Anna steps forward so I can see her face.

“I will not betray my people,” I answer back, not daring to look away from D’Anna in fear of finding Leoben’s eyes.

D’Anna seems to think about my answer for a while before she nods and turns away from me. She heads towards the door and gives one last glance at Leoben over her shoulder before she crosses the threshold and the door closes. I can’t avoid his eyes any longer and as I muster every ounce of strength to glare at him, I see his hands twitch at his sides.

“You just wanted to be with me, didn’t you?” he smirked as he kneeled down next to her before he continued, “You don’t care about them, you just wanted to have me frak you.”

I shudder at that thought and the look in his eyes as I realize that if I had died of cancer, I wouldn’t have to go through this right now. I wouldn’t have been able to spend time with Bill, though. A part of me wishes that Bill would come bursting through the door and shoot every cylon in this damn place, but another part of me didn’t want him to come near this place because I know it would be a suicide mission. Leoben is reaching out now, trying to touch my face and I instantly turn away.

He starts laughing at me and shakes his head as he stands up. He now towers over me, and I only have a moment to look at his figure before his hand in behind my head, dragging me to my feet by my hair. A gasp is forced past my lips before I can stifle it and pain instantly shoots from my scalp. I am now on my tiptoes as Leoben tugs my head backwards to make me meet his eyes. His lips come crashing down on top of mine and I can feel my back connecting with one of the walls.

I am stuck between two solid structures and I try to fight Leoben off by throwing my fists into his chest to try to get some space between us. I can feel him smirk against my lips at my failed attempt and he tightens his grip on my hair while his other hand snakes around my waist. His lips are still on top of mine and he is not letting up, so I decide to do the only thing I can think of. I open my mouth a bit as his tongue ventures out of his mouth and into mine. As soon as I was sure that I could hit my target, I bit down on his tongue as hard as I could.

“Argh! You bitch!” he stumbles back and looks at me with hatred in his eyes, but then it is replaced with something else as he only smirks, “You want to play rough? I can do that, Laura, but you may regret that decision in a bit.”

I am still frozen against the wall as I come to my senses, but before I can say anything in return, the back of his hand connects with my left cheek. My head is spinning as I fall to the ground because of the impact, and I can’t seem to tell which way is up. 

“That was a warning, Laura,” he growls as his feet come into my line of sight. “I am going to break you, but not with punches, unless you misbehave. Although, I must say that I do love this feral streak of yours. I think that is what Baltar must have found attractive about you; after all, he was probably on the receiving end of your wrath quite a few times.”

I felt physically sick as I thought about Baltar finding me attractive. That man could rot in a hole for all I care. 

“Is that what gets Adama off? You ordering him around as if you owned him?” Leoben is smiling down at me as he takes off his outer jacket. “Or maybe it’s the other way around. Do you get off with the thought of the Admiral telling you to frak him and kneel in front of him? I bet you love that.”

His jacket was now on the ground near the door, neatly folded, and he was moving slowly towards me. My head still hurt, but I could now see straight and I was able to sit on my butt and slide back against a wall. I tried to use the wall to help me up, but between the implications of his words and my failing strength, I was stuck halfway up the wall. 

“Tell me what you want, Laura,” he said as he stopped in front of me.

His arousal was obvious from my position in front of him, and I had to fight back the bile that was rising in my throat. 

“I want you to get the frak out of here!” I yelled at him as he grinned back at me.

“But we haven’t even gotten to the good part yet,” he replied.

He was getting closer to me now and I started to panic internally. I had to remain calm on the outside so that I would not lose the battle of wills, but it was a lost cause. His hands were now on me, roughly pulling me up to my full height. He traced my arms with his hands until he reached my wrists. I realized what he was doing a second too late as he caught my wrists and brought them above my head. With one hand, he kept my arms pinned to the wall, and his other hand free to roam and his lips locked with mine.

He starts with the buttons on my shirt and I can feel the chill of the cell settle into my bones. I have never realized how cold this cell really was until the air hits the exposed skin above my breasts. He roughly grabs my breasts through my plain white bra as he pushes me further into the wall. His lips leave mine to travel down my neck, nipping hard at random intervals. Replacing his hand with his mouth, I feel him bight down on the tender flesh of my left breast, and I bite down hard on my lower lip to stifle my scream. 

He turns his attention to my other breast and his free hand moves down my stomach to the waistline of my pants. He is almost tender in his exploration on my stomach and I try to fight away thoughts of Bill. He is trying to mess with my mind, and I hate to admit it, but it is working. When he pops the button of my pants open, the memories of Bill are gone and the fear is back. I try to get my wrists free once more and I am surprised when I can almost get them free. 

“I can let you go, if you’d like,” Leoben’s mouth is now next to my ear, “but you are going to have to cooperate. I can take you whether you are freely writhing beneath me or pinned against the wall with you fighting me. Either way, you will be mine.” 

I now had another choice, and I was fighting with myself about each option. I could give in and just lay there, or I could try to fight him every step of the way. Do I give him what he wants without a fight, or do I stand my ground? 

“I will make sure that he knows that you were used. He will be able to see it in your eyes and your appearance. When he asks you what happened and who you fraked, you can say it was me,” he growled in a dangerously low voice as he looked directly into my eyes, “I will make you mine, Laura.”

With his last statement ringing in my ears, I am suddenly crashing to the hard ground as he throws me across the room. I look up quickly, fearing that he will attack me while I am down, but he is headed towards the cell door. 

“Until next time,” he grinned over his shoulder before he walked out the now open door. 

For the first time since I was brought here, I curl up into a ball and hold my knees to my chest. I feel tears sting my eyes, and for the first time in a long while, I let them fall.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter will be cut short so that I can put the rated M scene in its own chapter for those of you that want to skip it.

One Month, 2 Weeks, and 5 Days

It’s been two weeks since Leoben paid me a visit. It’s been two weeks since I shed my first tears. It’s been two weeks since I had to fight back thoughts of Bill when it was really the cylon. It’s been two weeks since I got the bruises on my arms and face. It’s been two weeks since I started doubting my decision. It’s been one month, two weeks, and 5 days since I lost my freedom, and I will not forget it.

By now, I find it hard to stop replaying my last encounter with Leoben through my head. I cannot figure out why he did not finish the job. He had me pinned and there was no way I could have fought him off. He made his point clear that he would take me and that I had only one choice in the matter, but he decided to leave the room. He left me on the ground as he walked out of the cell with that smug look on his face.

I’m not saying that I am not grateful that he stopped, but it unnerves me to think that he has that type of control over me. He can stop and start this stupid game of his whenever he wants, and I have to follow along. I can go willingly or I can fight him. As I think about that choice, I know that I have already chosen to fight him, but is that the right thing to do? I could surrender and maybe he would lose interest and just let me be. I know that will never happen, though I would like to believe that it would. 

The doors to my cell are opening again, and I don’t know how I did not hear footsteps approaching. It should be Doral, ready to reprimand me for not eating all of my food and threatening to strap me back to a hospital bed. Or maybe it’s Cavil, here to tell me all about how ‘if I only cooperate with them, God will be forgiving.’ Or even D’Anna and her ever annoying questions about Earth.

I was wrong on all accounts. Its Leoben’s large form that walks through the door and I am a bit taken back. Last time he waited for a month before returning, so why is he back so soon?

“How are you, Laura?” He asks as he smiles down at me.

I look him in the eyes and can’t help the shudder that runs through my ice cold body. I don’t want to answer him, but after our last encounter I want to keep him talking and away from me.

“I’m cold and sore, but I guess that is the usual for all of your prisoners,” I replied a moment later hoping to get some information about other prisoners they are keeping here. 

“Well, if you hadn’t bitten me, you wouldn’t have that bruise on your face, now would you?” He says smoothly as he comes closer to me.

He avoided the second part of my statement completely, and I am not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing. Am I the only prisoner that they are treating like this? Am I the only prisoner they still have? All of these questions were swirling through my head as I watched him get closer and closer.

“I bet you weren’t expecting me back so soon,” he says with a ferial grin, “truth is, I couldn’t wait to see you again. I could not stop thinking about those magnificent breasts of yours or the way you felt writhing against me,” he stops for a moment to look up to the ceiling with a smile, “you have been in my thoughts every day for the past week, and I love it.”

I am still on the ground as I try to get away from his approaching form, but the fraking walls keep stopping me from doing anything. I can’t run away or hide. I am stuck with this monster again. He is now looking down at me as one of his hands reaches out to touch my bruised cheek. I try to turn my face away, but his other hand stops my motion. He doesn’t move towards me, in fact he seems to be staring into my eyes and looking into my sole. 

It’s a cliché, I know, but that is the only way to explain what he is doing. It reminds me of Bill, but where there is usually kindness and friendship in Bill’s gaze, there is creepy and unnerving in Leoben’s stare. It does nothing to ease the feeling of dread that is still building inside of me. I don’t want to look away in fear that he might strike me, but if he does not stop soon, I will not be able to stop myself from shuddering under his intense gaze.

“You have the most beautiful eyes, did you know that?” he whispers as his thumbs begin to caress my cheeks, “And your hair,” his fingers run through my hair to rub my scalp, “is perfect.”

There is a tenderness in his words and actions that makes me think that he would not hurt me if I gave into him, but I stop that thought before I can ponder it any further. They are still the enemy and they have slaughtered millions of people for their own pleasure. It will be an eternity before I ever consider giving in again. 

“I think we should pick up where we left off,” he says as he leans forward, “and remember, I don’t take kindly to biting,” he growled into my ear, “unless of course it is all in the sport of good fun.”

I cringe at his words as he leans in closer to my face, and I close my eyes and turn away as much as his hands will permit. I wish that I had stayed on Galactica with Bill, and that I had just told him how I felt. Maybe we would have stayed together in his rooms and spent the long nights nestled on his couch with a book or laying entangled in his rack. It would be him above me now trying to steal a kiss instead of this monster. 

His lips meet mine in a crushing blow and I bring my hands up to push at his chest. No matter how hard I push, he is still there and I feel my world start to spin. I am surrounded by His scent. His breath. His arms. His lips. His body. My stomach is churning as he pushes his tongue past my lips and his hand into my hair. 

It’s all happening again, his other hand is snaking down to meet the hem of my shirt and each button is being removed with a vengeance. I try in vain to push his hand away, but he catches my wrist before I can do much damage. If it weren’t for the fact that we were on the ground and he was crouching over me, it would be the exact same scene as two weeks ago. 

My shirt is now completely open and is barely hanging on my shoulders as his mouth traces my throat down towards my chest. I try to bring my shirt closed with my free hand, but he only grins and brings my hand up to meet the other. I’m in the same fraking helpless position as last time, and I also have to laugh at the irony of my situation. 

“I have missed these,” he groans as his mouth fines the tender flesh of my breasts, “I can’t wait to see them without the bra.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I chose to end this here so that I can separate the rape scene from the story in case there are people who like the story but would prefer not to read the next scene. It will be the next chapter, so here is your warning.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter will be RATED M, so if you don’t want to read it, feel free to skip it and wait for the next chapter.

One Month, Two Weeks, 5 Days: Part 2 

I just now notice that his hand is behind my back holding me to him, and as it starts to move towards the clasp of my bra I feel my skin start to crawl. The soft snap as it unhooks seems to echo in the cold cell and the straps fall forward threatening to come off completely. He leans back to look at my chest as he slowly removes the bra from my body, and I have to look away as I see a look of hunger pass through his eyes.

His mouth and hand are pulling, nipping, pinching, and squeezing at delicate skin. Tears spring to my eyes as I bite my tongue in pain. I thought he would be delicate like his previous caresses, but the hunger that I saw in his eyes should have been a warning. Looking up to the ceiling, I try to imagine that the pain is gone and I am back home on Colonial One with one of the books that Bill gave me. I would be curled up in one of the chairs with my feet tucked beneath me and a blanket around my shoulders. 

“I can see that this isn’t exactly what keeps you interested,” Leoben says as he brings his face within inches of mine, “Maybe I was right the first time. Maybe you do like to be thrown around and told what to do.”

Once I focus on the present again, his words slowly start to sink in. He stands up, towering over me, and looks down.

“Take the rest of it off,” he demanded.

I shake my head at him and try to stare him down for as long as I can. Staring is good, I can do that. Lords of Kobol know that I have had my fair amount of staring matches with Quorum members. This is how I assert my power, and I can count on a single hand the number of people that do not flinch at my Presidential glare. 

“Ah, the famous Roslin Glare. Baltar often talked about that look of yours, and he was right, you are extremely frakable when you use it,” Leoben laughed and then stopped, “It will not work on me Laura. Now, strip.”

I hope that my face did not reflect the shock that I most definitely felt at that moment. I am frozen to the spot as I realize that I cannot put this off any longer. I was lucky the first time, but just like New Caprica, that luck ran out. He is still looking at me expectantly, but my limbs refuse to move. My brain has stopped working, but is that a bad thing?

He is now walking towards me and I am begging my body to do something. He is right in front of me now.

“I told you to strip, bitch,” he says in a strangely calm tone, “either you do it on your own accord, or I will rip your clothes off of you and you won’t get any replacements.”

As my brain registers his words, my hands are already working on the remainder of my clothing. There is no way in hell that I am going to remain bare to him and anyone else that walks in here if I can help it. At least I will have clothes to cover up with after this is over with.

I can feel my arms moving in a motion that would bring my pants down, but my legs are numb. I keep my eyes on the door behind him, thinking it was better than looking down at what I was losing. I am now only in my underwear and I am waiting for him to get it over with.

“Underwear too,” he says

I hesitate, wanting to keep the remaining barrier between us. 

“Now!” he suddenly screams.

I am brought out of my shocked state and suddenly feeling is rushing through my shaking legs and freezing body. Now that I can feel, I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t want to go further. Whatever was pushing me to comply earlier was gone. I cover my chest with my arm and reach down to grab my pants. 

“What do you think you are doing?” he growls.

I don’t answer him. I keep bringing the pants up my legs to cover my exposed flesh. I see my bra just a few feet away where he must have discarded it earlier. As I reach for it, I am vaguely aware of the cell door opening and another cylon entering the room. I don’t know who and I don’t care. I want my clothes back on and anyone who says otherwise can go frak themselves. 

The next thing I know, a body slams into mine, effectively knocking the wind out of me. I am pinned facing the wall with a body pressed against me. It is another male cylon, but the build is not Leoben’s. I look down at the hands that are holding me and I realize they are the hands of somebody older. Cavil. It must be Cavil. My suspicions are confirmed when he whispers in my ear.

“Leoben doesn’t want to rough you up too much, but I have no problem showing you your place,” he says as he grounds his arousal into my ass. 

His reaches for my arms and pulls them behind my back, exposing me to Leoben as he walks towards me. Cavil kisses my neck and bites down hard as I try to turn away from him. Leoben is now reaching down towards my pants, slowly dragging them down inch by inch. His fingers lightly trace the inside of my legs on his journey back up, and his lips meet my stomach just above my underwear.

Cavil’s grip is stronger than I thought, but then again, he is a cylon. His free hand is grabbing at my breasts as he continues his assault on my neck and shoulders. I know that I will have marks and bruises that will probably be there for weeks to come.

“We are going to have so much fun,” Cavil whispered into my ear, “Maybe we could even try this thing called the ‘swirl’ or ‘twirl’ or something like that. I think you could pull it off. Then we could bend you over and frak you harder than you have ever been fraked before. We will have you screaming for more and we will make sure you get it.”

I can feel my breathing getting erratic as the walls start to close in on me. I am panicking, and if I don’t calm down, I might pass out, and who knows what they are going to do to me then. Leoben is already working on my underwear, and I have to close my eyes when he starts to chuckle.

“Who knew that the former President likes to stay trimmed,” Leoben laughs, “I guess I will have to touch you now, since you look like this. All open and ready for me,” he says as he brings a finger to my vagina, “Oh, but you aren’t quite wet enough, yet. I can fix that though.”

His lips are suddenly caressing my vagina and licking from my opening to my clit. I can feel my body start to respond and I struggle harder against Cavil’s grip. Unfortunately this pushes my farther into Leoben’s mouth, and both of the cylons take it as an encouragement.

“I think she really does want us,” Cavil grins against my skin, “Maybe this was one of her fantasies, being fraked by two cylons while she was helpless. Did you have any fantasies that you wanted us to fulfill, Laura?”

“Yes, actually,” I say as they both look at me, “If you could blow yourselves up and never come back to life, that would be great.”

They both seem to chuckle at my remark before they go back to my body. Leoben’s lips resume their previous exploration as his hands grope my ass. Cavil is kissing every part of my exposed neck and shoulders while one of his hands focuses on my breasts. The worst part of it was, my body was responding! I have never felt more disgusted with myself before.

“I bet you had fantasies about the Admiral,” Leoben says as he stands up to look me right in the eye, “him fraking you as you lay on a desk, or maybe a quick frak in a closet. Were you on bottom, or top? Were you tied up and forced to give up power to him, or was he giving into you?” 

“I think she is used to the dominant position,” Cavil says, “I think she would fantasize about being taken by force.”

“Well then, we can’t let your fantasies go to waste, now can we?” Leoben says as he kisses her forcefully. 

The next thing I know, I am on top of Cavil on the ground, and Leoben is pushing me forward. My arms are still behind my back as Leoben places his arousal at my entrance. Cavil’s joins his shortly after, and his hands go straight for my breasts. Before I can say anything, they are both thrusting into me. I let out a cry of pain as my body tries to adjust to their size. 

Leoben finds purchase in my hair and continues to thrust into me with long hard thrusts. Cavil is thrusting with short, hard strokes as he holds me to him. After my initial cry of pain, I try to keep as quiet as I can, but it hurts so much and they won’t stop. Tears of pain are rolling down my face and I am trying to get my arms free from Leoben’s grasp. Every time I move, more pain shoots through my body and their grip gets tighter.

“Frak, Laura!” Leoben screams, “If you keep moving like that, I’m not going to last long at all.”

“Agreed,” Cavil says from beneath me as he stills and brings his mouth to my breasts. 

They both stop their thrusting and use their mouths to touch me. Although my body was responding, it was not enough to take away the pain. Cavil is licking my breasts while holding my hips, and Leoben is using one hand to hold my hands together and the other is squeezing my ass. I try to think of anything else, but it’s useless and I have to swallow back bile as I resort to begging.

“Please,” I gasp in a voice that I hardly recognize as mine, but between the pain and the weakness that is settling in my body, I am surprised I can even speak.

“I think she is begging us for more John,” Leoben laughs as he slaps my ass.

“She is a hungry little slut,” Cavil chuckles, “No wonder the Admiral left. He knew that she was getting into every man’s pants, and he couldn’t stand it. We should finish this off inside of her and then she would really look like the slut she is.”

Leoben grabs my hair and turns me to look at him, “I bet you would like that, huh? Having us come inside of you? How many people did you have frak you under Presidential Order?” Leoben said, earning him a laugh from Cavil, “Did you start before or after you started fraking Adar?”

I tried to hide my shock at his knowledge of my affair with Richard, but it must have shown through because he was grinning like a mad man.

“It doesn’t matter now,” Cavil said, “You’re not the President any more, which means you have no power whatsoever.”

“So Dr. Roslin,” Leoben sneered, bringing his face within an inch of mine, “Why don’t you just take it like the bitch that you are, and we will see if we can’t tear a couple screams from that pretty throat of yours.”

I am still between the two of them and when Leoben pushes my head forward, I fall flat onto Cavil whose hands and lips are waiting for me.

“Get off of me!” I scream as I start thrashing in every direction to get away from them, “Get the frak away from me!”

I can hear Leoben growl before I am pushed hard against Cavil, and Leoben is entering me, hard. Cavil soon joins him, and the pain from earlier is back. They are grunting and groaning and telling me that I am ‘their bitch now’ and that ‘the fraker Adama’ will never want me back when he sees what they have done to me. 

I feel Cavil thrust into me and then still and then I can feel him explode into me. If it was hard to hold down bile earlier, it’s even harder now. Leoben is still pounding into me as Cavil turns all of his attention to my body. His face holds a smirk fit for the devil as he looks at Leoben over my shoulder.

“Leoben, stop for a moment,” Cavil says, “Sit on the floor with her facing me.”

“Why?” Leoben asks even as he is doing just as he was told which caused him to do deeper into me.

“We are going to prove to her just how much of a slut she is,” Cavil laughs and then directs his attention to me, “We are going to make you come Laura, whether you like it or not.”

Leoben is now sitting behind me with his arousal buried deep inside me, and Cavil is facing us. I have a feeling I know what he is going to do, but I really hope he doesn’t. Ever since the cancer treatments, certain body parts have been more sensitive than others. I watch as Cavils hands go down towards my sex, and as his fingers brush against my clit, I know Leoben can feel my body’s reaction.

“I think she likes that,” Leoben hisses through clenched teeth.

“Your body wants all of this Laura, so why don’t you just let go?” Cavil whispers as his fingers begin to lightly circle my clit.

I’m not supposed to have this type of a reaction to them! This is how my body is supposed to respond to Bill, and Bill only. Cavil increases the pressure and Leoben begins to ruthlessly thrust up into me, and I can feel the long forgotten burning in my lower stomach. This can’t be happening!

“No,” I gasp as I try to move away from Cavil’s fingers, “Stop! No, no, NO!”

I can feel myself getting close, and it has nothing to do with the company and everything to do with the fact that it has been too fraking long and being without Bill has made it even worse. As much as my mind is telling my body that I don’t want this, my body seems to think otherwise. 

“She is close to coming, John,” Leoben grunts as he thrusts harder and faster into me, which probably means he is close too.

“Come for us, Laura,” Cavil says as he fingers continue their assault on my clit, “Don’t fight it. You can’t fight it. We want to hear you scream.”

I am so close, and I know there is no stopping at this point. I don’t want to give them the satisfaction of knowing that they got me off, so I do the only thing I can think of to piss them off. Leoben shudders within me and I can feel him spill his seed into me, and then Cavil’s fingers hit just the right spot on my clit, and I come. They said that they wanted me to scream, so I do.

“Bill!” I scream and I feel both Cavil and Leoben freeze before I hear a growl and everything goes black.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the rape

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to add this twist to put a few people at ease who believed that Leoben couldn’t have raped Laura and treated her the way he did in the last chapter.

One Month, Two Weeks, 5 Days and…?

I wake up in their hospital wing again, and I have no clue how long I have been here. I have no idea how long it has been since Leoben and Cavil paid me a visit. I have no idea how long it has been since I was violated and humiliated in my cell. I have no idea how long I have been unconscious as the cylons do lords know what to me. I have no idea how long it has been since I screamed Bill’s name and was knocked out, but judging by the footsteps coming down the corridor, I am about to find out.

As I look up towards the entrance, I see one of the cylons called Simon walk in followed closely by a Doral and Sharon. I try to sit up to meet them, but I find that I am restrained to the bed. I pull on the restraints hoping to find a bit of given in the material, but nothing happens. When I look further down the bed I notice that my legs are held by similar restraints and as if to prove my eyes correct, I pull on those too. I am stuck to a bed with three cylons surrounding me. 

I can feel the panic seeping into my pores and my chest start to tighten. The anesthetic that they used on me is wearing off because I can feel my entire body aching, especially everything from my waist down and my breasts. Looking down at my body I realize that I am covered in blanket and only my underwear. I don’t know if they intend to keep me this way or if it was the easiest thing for them to cover me with.

“Ah, Laura,” Simon said approaching my bedside, “It’s good to see you awake. Are you experiencing any pain?”

“How long have I been unconscious?” I ask, now realizing that my throat is incredibly dry.

Simon looks at Doral as if asking his permission before he answers, “Leoben brought you in 3 days ago. Apparently Cavil hit you pretty hard on the side of the head before he started beating you. You have a concussion, three broken ribs, a fractured wrist, and a few cuts and bruises. I’ve wrapped your ribs and put a brace on your wrists.”

I don’t know how I didn’t notice that there was a brace on my right wrists when I had tugged at my restraints earlier, but looking at it now I can clearly see a black brace extending out from under the material. They might have left me in my underwear in order to wrap my ribs, but by the look that Doral is giving me, it was probably for their own pleasure. 

“Are you in any pain?” Simon asks again as he scans the various machines around me.

“When can I leave?” I replied, unwilling to take any more medication from them no matter what the effects were. 

“You are going to stay here until Simon releases you, Laura,” the Sharon model sneers at me.

Part of me is happy that I will be stuck in the hospital wing and away from the cell, but another part of me knows that Cavil and Leoben could attack me here as well. The location will not matter if they want to get to me again, and that thought only fuels my panic. The restraints dig into my wrists and ankles painfully as I try to discretely pull them free. 

“If you keep pulling on them, you are going to hurt yourself even more,” Simon huffs grabbing my wrists to still my struggles.

“If you took them off, I wouldn’t be hurting myself,” I ground out between clenched teeth.

I turn my attention to Doral who is laughing, “Nice try, but we aren’t going to be letting you go anytime soon,” he said before he suddenly turned serious, “we have questions for you, and we will get answers.”

Sharon motions for Simon to follow her out as Doral sits on the side of my bed. He looks at the door and sees that the other two are gone, and when he is satisfied that we are alone, he turns back to me. His hands are suddenly around my neck and he is leaning over me, gradually tightening his grip. 

“We want to know everything you know about Earth,” Doral states calmly, “and about the resistance that is forming.”

“How the hell…would I know a-about a resistance?!” I choke out between gasps of breath, “I have been with you…fr-frakkers since you got here!”

Doral shakes his head and chuckles, “You know the likely people behind it, and you are going to tell us.”

I am no longer focused on his words as my vision is filled with black splotches as my body screams for oxygen. I try in vain to get my hands loose, but I am losing strength with every passing second that I do not have precious air in my lungs. I no longer feel the pain that was radiating from my body because it is nothing compared to the bubbling pain in my lungs. 

“Humans have such weak bodies,” Doral says leering down at me, “We were surprised by your recovery until we learned that you used a serum of our blood. I guess you are still reliant on us.”

He releases my neck and I try to lean forward while sucking in as much air as my starved lungs can hold. I can feel his eye on my gasping form as I continue to sputter and cough at the rush of oxygen. Once I start to calm down, I lie back down against the pillow and look at Doral sitting patiently by my side. We both stare at each other, waiting for something to happen.

“We know that Saul Tigh is involved, and we will be bringing him in,” Doral stated calmly, “but we need to know who else would be involved in something like this. We will ask Tigh when he is brought in, but we thought we would give you a chance to get in our good graces.”

I look at him and can’t help the bitter laughter that breaks from my throat. After everything that we have had to endure from these machines, they expect me to believe that they have a good side to be on. To get them to leave us alone, we would have to submit, which was never going to happen. I can’t tell if Doral thinks I am crazy or if he understands what is going through my head. The way he is staring at me makes me think that he has had this reaction before, but I can’t bring myself to care or stop. 

“You know what happened last time you refused to cooperate, Laura,” Doral shakes his head, “I guess it is my turn to share in your punishment should you fail to give us what we want.”

My laughter had subsided half way through his warning, and I fear he can hear my heart trying to beat out of my chest. I try to swallow the lump forming in my throat, but it’s too dry to help. I know that if I say nothing he will probably leave me to think about it, only to come back with another model. Hopefully most of the pain will have subsided by then and I can try to block out anything they do to me. 

Leaning over me, Doral leveled his eyes with mine and whispered, “Your strength is admirable, I’ll give you that. I think I am just going to enjoy this and then I will ask questions later.”

I feel the weight of his upper body against mine as he bends his head to capture my lips. I turn my head away from him and hear him chuckle. 

“Are we really going to repeat your performance with Cavil and Leoben?” He asks me.

I whip my head back to him with a look of horror on my face. I pray to the gods that they just told him what happed and that he wasn’t…that he hadn’t…been watching.

“You put on quite the show for all of us,” Doral laughs as he brings his hands to my waist to grab my hips roughly, “We all wanted to see what you would say when Leoben started, and it was quite entertaining, but Cavil thought it wasn’t going quick enough. Personally, I think he just wanted a piece of you.”

His mouth finds my neck as his hands begin to inch up my bare flesh. I hiss out loud when his left hand brushed over a bruise I didn’t realize I had. It’s right under my ribs and he seems to notice my discomfort. I try moving to the right to get away from his hands, but he only brings his hands higher to land on another bruise. He presses down harder and twists his hand wrenching a scream from my aching body. The pain is so great that I don’t feel Doral dragging the flat end of a blade up my body until it is resting against my throat.

“I think we should keep the vocalizations to a minimal. I don’t want anybody interrupting us,” Doral mutters against my skin, “And I know you thought you were clever yelling out Adama’s name last time, but if it happens again I won’t hesitate to make you regret it.”

Doral stops his exploration of my throat to look me in the eye, and I know that he is not exaggerating. 

He leans down just centimeters away from my lips before his eyes meet mine again, “I am going to kiss you, Laura, and I want you to kiss me back. I want you to give into the sensations and just let yourself go. You need to learn that here, you have no power. Here, you can only submit.”

His lips descend on mine before I can respond, and I have to acquiesce to his demands. I am forever aware of the cool sting the blade at my throat produces and the way it begins to bite into my skin at the slightest movement. Tears are clouding my vision as I think about how helpless I am. I didn’t even feel this bad when I was dying, and yet here I am at the will of these machines.

“DORAL!” 

We both look towards the direction the voice came from to see Leoben standing in the doorway. I try to lift my head further to see Leoben fully, but the knife is still against my throat. 

“D’Anna and the others want to see you, Doral,” Leoben says a bit tersely.

Sighing dramatically, Doral kisses me one last time before he gets up and heads towards the door.

“I’ll be back to catch up, Laura,” he says before turning to the other cylon in the room, “Take care of her while I’m gone.”

I watch as Doral closes the door behind him and my eyes turn to those of Leoben. He seems to be waiting for something, and as I watch him for another few seconds I realize that he must be listening to the dying sound of footsteps. Once he is satisfied with the lack of sound he turns to me and his features seem to soften before they turn to anguish. He carefully approaches my bed and his gaze is drawn to the restraints at my ankles and wrists. 

“Laura, I-“ he tries to speak, but it almost sounded as if he was getting choked up. He faces away from me to gather himself before he looks back, “I’m so sorry.”

I try not to let anything show on my face, and I am glad that being in politics has helped me disguise my emotions. I can’t believe what I am hearing. It is probably another tactic to see if I will open up to a kind and gentle approach. They are probably watching now.

“I didn’t want to hurt you like that,” Leoben says reaching for the restraints at my ankles, “They wanted to send Doral in first to try to break you, but I knew that he wouldn’t be at all gentle. I told them I wanted to do it, but they said they wanted to watch so I knew I had to act like I wanted to rape you. I thought I could tell you to trust me and that they were watching. Before I got the chance, Cavil came in and started taking control…I had to go along with it or they would never let me near you again.”

He released my ankles from the bounds and he moved to my arms. I was staring at him waiting to see if this was all a trick, but he seemed to be speaking the truth. He had genuine remorse in his eyes, or at least what passes as remorse for a machine. He caresses my wrist below the restraint before he pulls back the leather and slips it through the loop. When he looks at my other wrist, I can see more pain forming in his gaze as he sees the brace. 

“I think there are some clothes in the cabinet,” Leoben whispers, “I will check.”

He stands up and walks to the far side of the room. I can now move my hands and feet, but I am not sure if that is something I can take advantage of right now. I watch as he pulls open the cabinet and withdrawals something similar to hospital scrubs. Carefully, he brings them back to me and places them on the bed.

“I never wanted to hurt you like that, Laura. If I had known that Cavil was coming in, I would have tried to warn you sooner and then maybe you wouldn’t have ended up like this. I didn’t have a choice…I will guard the door while you get dressed.”

I can’t believe my ears at the moment. Was he really trying to tell me that he didn’t mean to rape me? That he was forced to do it?

“You had a choice, you know?” I yell at his retreating form, “You could have just left me alone. You didn’t have to do any of that to me! You think you didn’t have a choice?! How the hell did you come to that conclusion?! I was the one locked in the frakking cell and forced to have sex. You were the one who had the power to stop it whenever you wanted to, but I guess that was the problem, wasn’t it? You didn’t want to stop! You can feed all of the remorse crap to somebody that is going to give a frak, because I sure as hell don’t!”

I can see his whole body stiffen at my words before he slowly turns around. Anger and hurt are displayed clearly on his face.

Walking towards me, he begins speaking softly, but as he continues his volume builds, “You’re right, I did have a choice. I could have not gone in there and not volunteered to punish you, but then you would have been stuck with Doral and Cavil who would have kept torturing and raping you for hours. To them, you are a toy that is useful in two ways. You can give information, and you can give head. They want to keep you here for a while, even if you do give us information. They want to hurt and break you in every way possible.

Don’t you see that I am trying my hardest to make sure that you are taken care of? I am trying to make sure that if I cannot stop your pain and suffering then I can ease it. I don’t want to see you get hurt, Laura,” he said, bringing his hand to caress my cheek, “But if I have to hurt you a little bit to keep you safe from Cavil and Doral, then I will…I want to make sure you can get back to your admiral in one piece.”

At his mention of Bill, I have to fight back tears. My mind is screaming at me that it is all a trick and that all of this is to make me comfortable enough to talk, but my heart is telling my mind to go frak itself and to trust Leoben. Now that I think about it, it all makes sense. Leoben was gentle the first time, and the second he seemed completely different, which would bring proof to the crowd. He did let me out of my restraints, give me clothes, and offer to leave the room while I change, but can I really trust him?

“I know that you are probably having a hard time believing that I actually want to help you, but you must understand that I would never want to bring you harm. I didn’t hurt you when I grabbed you outside the airlock chamber. I didn’t try to hurt you in the dreams. Why would I want to hurt you now when I had the chance to before?”

“Maybe you realized a missed chance,” I answer back quickly, trying to not let the hope of seeing Bill again cloud my judgment of this ma- uh, cylon.

“Good point,” Leoben smiled down at me, “I am not like that and I know it is going to take a lot to convince you, but I will not stop trying to keep you safe because you don’t trust me. A small group of us think that this occupation is not God’s will, and that we should not be imprisoning and killing people. We want to find Earth, but we wanted to make peace with you, the government. We would leave you alone, but we have recognized that if we find earth, the others will try to finish humanity off for good. We want to help get you out of here so that you can help us get rid of the Cavil’s and Doral’s…What can I do to convince you that I am on your side?”

I hesitate for a moment thinking about all of the things I could ask him to do. Things like: help me escape, keep me away from Doral and Cavil, get me some actually food, and get me out of the cold cell ran through my head. They were all selfish thoughts, so choosing what I wanted wasn’t a hard decision. I have to get my people out of here, and that would require getting a message to Bill and planning an escape off this frakking planet. 

“I need you to help me get a message to Galactica and start planning a rescue for everyone,” I said with more confidence than I have had in a while. 

“Laura,” Leoben sighs, “I’m not going to lie to you, that could take months to organize, but I will do everything in my power to make it happen. Do you know the frequency Galactica would use for emergencies? We can start trying to make contact while I gather information on the holding facilities.”

“I don’t know the frequency, but I think I know somebody who might,” I answered.

Leoben nodded and was about to speak before he jerked up and turned towards the door, “Somebody is coming. We can talk about this later, but I need you to listen to me, Laura. I am going to have to keep up my act of wanting to hurt you so that the others don’t become suspicious. I will have to do things that neither of us will enjoy, but I will try to make it as painless as possible.”

“I understand,” I say, reaching down to grab the clothes to give to him.

He shook his head and before saying, “Go ahead and put them on. I will make up some excuse for you wearing them. I will be outside stalling for as long as I can, but you will need to hurry if you want privacy while putting those on.”

With that, Leoben headed out the door and towards the incoming cylon. I could not believe any of that just happened, but I am not going to refuse the offer of any type of clothing or the opportunity to see Bill again…even if it does come around to bite me in the ass.


	6. Chapter 6

One Month, Three Weeks, 2 Days

Yesterday I got the shock of my life. Leoben was helping me. He didn’t want to rape me, but he had to. I still not too convinced on the part where he said he had no choice, but in this hell hole we call New Caprica, I have to take a chance. He said he could help contact Bill and get everyone off this fraking planet. 

After he left to stall the cylon, which happened to be D’Anna, I dressed as quickly as I possibly could. By the time they came into the room, I was dressed and Sitting on the bed. D’Anna had looked at Leoben but had said nothing; she simply motioned for me to follow her. She led me back to my cell, and Leoben was close behind me. When we got to the familiar gray door, my stomach dropped. I was back in the same place I was raped and beaten.

That was yesterday. Nothing has happened yet today, but I am hoping that Leoben will come back with some kind of news. If I am right about Chief Tyrol, then he can get the frequencies that would reach Galactica. He is probably trying to reach Bill and Lee right now. Maybe we will get out of here sooner than Leoben thought. I will be able to see Bill soon. That’s all I can seem to think about lately. No matter what I try to think about, he pops back into my head. 

My cell door opens and Sharon and Six walk towards me. Sharon closes the door behind them and they come to a stop a few feet from the sorry excuse of a mattress I sometimes sleep on. I look up at them and decide to just start whatever conversation is about to happen.

“What can I do for you this time?” I start with more sarcasm than I ever used, even with Zarek, “I bet you already know that I am not going to talk to you, but I have to say I draw the line at fraking another woman. I’m not that lonely or desperate.”

Sharon scoffed, “We aren’t that desperate either, Laura.”

“We are here to prepare you for your meeting with President Baltar and Cavil,” Six interjected, “We brought you some clothes to change into, and we will deal with your hair and the bruises as we dress you.”

“Dress Me?!” I stood up and took a step towards them, “I am perfectly capable of dressing myself. I’ve been doing it for decades, so excuse me if I decline your offer,” I focused on Sharon since she was closer to my height.

“Sorry,” Sharon said, “We need to make sure that you aren’t taking any weapons in with you.”

“Oh, sorry. I forgot to tell you guys that I ran off to the armory and loaded up on grenades and guns. I mean it is the easiest thing to do when I am locked in a cell surrounded by cylons and forced to strip a few times,” I fire back.

I cross my arms over my chest and wait for them to leave the clothes and let me dress. When neither of them moves, I go back to sitting down on the mattress and staring at the opposite wall. If they want me to do anything they need to realize that I will not just give in to their demands. There is the sound of clothes rustling behind me before Sharon and Six came into my line of sight again.

“You pick,” Six growled, “Either we get you dressed to see Gaius, or I will personally find one of the male cylons to get you ready.”

Narrowing my eyes at Six, I leaned closer to her face. 

“How about I don’t get dressed, and I don’t go talk to the Weasel you call a President.”

Instead of replying, Six stood up and waited for Sharon to follow. They left my cell rather quickly and I began to think that they were just going to leave me here. Maybe they didn’t want to have to deal with me and decided to blow off the meeting with Baltar. Just then, the cell door opened again, but this time the footstep sounded heavier than a woman’s. They had gotten one of the male models to come in. 

“Laura,” Leoben called from the doorway, “We have to get you ready to see Dr. Baltar.”

I turned around to see only Leoben in my cell, and he was holding what looked like a red dress and a pair of strappy heels. 

“Why can’t I wear the clothes that I was brought here in?” I asked quietly.

He shook his head and came towards me, closing the door behind him.

“I don’t know. Sharon and Six said that you were being difficult, so I offered to come in here to try to change your mind. Six gave me these and told me that she and Baltar picked it out. I figured that is I tried to question her, she would just have Doral or Simon do this instead.”

I guess that made sense, but I could feel my skin crawling just thinking about the fact that Baltar was picking out clothes for me to wear. Leoben was looking anywhere but at me as he held out the dress and heels. 

“I will turn my back, but I can’t leave,” he said regretfully, “They might suspect something if I did.”

As I took the offered outfit, he turned towards the door and patiently waited for me to dress. Hesitantly, I pull down my pants and shiver as the cool air hits my legs. Suddenly, images of Cavil and Leoben assaulting and raping me are rushing through my head. I can’t think of that now. I need to get dressed and out of this cell. It was all too much. I’m striping again, with Leoben in the room, and I can feel bile rising in my throat. As I start to pull off the top, my breath catches as pain shoots through me. I try again, but slower, only to have the same pain radiate from my broken ribs and several bruises.

Leoben must have heard me gasp because he is calling my name, “Laura? Are you okay? Can I turn around?”

“NO!” I scream, “I mean, I-I’m not dressed yet. Please don’t turn around.”

“Laura, I promise I won’t,” he said calmly, “but you need to hurry. If we are in here too long, they will send somebody else to check.”

“Okay,” I breathe, “Just give me a minute.”

I try again to get the shirt over my head, but again the pain starts. It’s a sharp blinding pain that has me doubled over after too much exertion. I can’t do this. I can’t get the top off, and sooner or later, another cylon is going to walk through the door and I will be screwed. I need to get dressed. I look down at myself and realize I should have taken my pants off last. I am going to need help. Damn it all to hell! Tears are welling up behind my eyes, and I fight them back and take as deep of a breath in as I can. I have to ask him.

“Leoben?” I call over my shoulder, pain lacing my voice.

“Yes, Laura?” I can hear the concern in his voice.

“I can’t…well, um I-,” I stumble before collecting every bit of confidence I have left, “I can’t get my shirt off. The pain is too much…can you help me?”

I hear him clear his throat and move closer to me. I can feel him come up behind me before he lightly grabs the hem of my top. He gently pulls the fabric from my body and helps me guide my arms out of the shirt. Once it is over my head and completely off, he bends down to pick up the red dress. Placing it above my head, he waits for me to raise my hands above my head before guiding it down my body. 

His hands rest on my hips for the briefest of moments before he is pulling back and retrieving the shoes. Bending over, he helps my put on the heels and latches the clasp across her ankle. His fingers trail up my leg and he shakes his head while quickly pulling his hand away. When he is standing again in front of me, he brings his hand to my cheek.

“You look beautiful, Laura,” he whispers, “You pull of the dress better than Six, that’s for sure.”

“Leoben,” I turn away from him and look down, “Please don’t.”

He briefly nods before backing away and heading for the door. I look down at the dress and see that it stops about mid-thigh and it hugs every curve. It just barely covers my chest and I can see how it would suit Six…and Baltar. This was sick. I was getting paraded around for Baltar’s pleasure. 

“Laura,” Leoben called, “I was also told to help you cover the bruises on your cheek and arms. I’m not very good with make-up, but I get the basics.”

He was holding up a tube of make-up and was motioning for me to come forward. Five minutes later, the bruises were reasonably hidden and we were ready to leave. Pulling open the door, he let me go first before I felt him place a hand on the small of my back, guiding me forward and out of the building. When we finally reached Colonial One, I saw Six and Sharon talking with D’Anna. They all turned to look at me as we continued into the ship and through the first curtain. It was time to face Baltar.

“Laura!” I heard a squeak from behind my old desk, and realized it was Baltar, “You look great. I thought you would like to have something else to wear for a change.”

“I would have preferred my own clothes,” I reply smoothly.

“Yes, well, I think the outfit works for you, and it will work for today’s events,” he said while looking for something on the desk.

“What events are you talking about, Baltar?” I practically growl.

“You and I are going to address the people and encourage them to cooperate with the cylons. Then we will take volunteers for anybody that wants to help police th-,” I cut Baltar off by walking towards him.

I felt arms grab me from behind and I froze. I was back in my cell with the walls closing in on me. 

“Now, now Laura,” Cavil chides in my ear, “We wouldn’t want to have to hurt you. You do look delicious in that dress, and we wouldn’t want to ruin it,” he pulls me closer to him before finishing, “yet.”

Leoben is in the corner, clenching and unclenching his fists. He is trying to hide the discomfort from his face while also trying to seem passive. I tried to look at his and block out everything else, but Baltar’s voice brought me back.

“Look, Laura, all you have to do is stand next to me and agree to work with the cylons,” Baltar said, rising from his desk.

“I won’t do it, Baltar,” I quickly say, “If you want to be a traitor to humanity, be my guest, but I sure as hell won’t be. I always knew you were a weasel.”

“You really don’t have a choice here, Laura,” he walked closer to me and waited for a response.

“I do have a choice, and I choose not to do it. You will have to betray our people without me.”

“I told you she wouldn’t cooperate,” I heard Doral say from behind me. 

“Gaius,” Six called from the entrance of the ship, “We need to start addressing the people. They can handle Roslin for now.”

Baltar hesitated for a fraction of a second before he left with Six. I feel Cavil tighten his grip on me before I am lifted a few feet into the air. I am thrown across the small space of Colonial One, where I collide with two chairs and a wall. It is even harder to breathe now. My chest is collapsing in on itself and my ribs are on fire. Doral grabs the hair at the back of my neck and yanks me up onto my feet.

“All you have to do is agree,” Doral whispered in my ear.

I stayed quiet and waited for the next blow I knew was coming. Cavil walked in front of me and began throwing punches to my abdomen. After the fifth blow I was done. My knees buckled and I folded in on myself. The pain was causing me to start to black out, and it was getting harder to breathe. I catch Leoben’s eye in the corner, and I can see that he is helpless in what to do. As I collapse to the ground, Doral delivers a forceful kick to my right side, throwing me onto my back. The last thing I remember before I black out is the feeling of being lifted into the air.


	7. Chapter 7

One Month, Three Weeks, 2 Days Continued

I could feel the darkness start to recede as the events of earlier today came back to me. Leoben helping me dress. Meeting Baltar and the cylons on Colonial One. Cavil and Doral knocking me out. I can hear voices now. They are familiar and as the fog continues to leave my mind, I start to recognize them. First I can hear Leoben’s voice and then Dr. Cottle’s. I must be in one of the med tents.

Opening my eyes slightly, I can see the fuzzy outlines of people around me. I can see the familiar form of Cottle leaning over me, and he is talking to me. I can hear his voice, but it takes me a while to actually listen to what he is saying to me. As I turn to the left, I see Leoben standing near my bed. I try to talk, but my throat is dry and I end up coughing.

“Drink this, young lady,” Cottle’s gruff voice finally cuts through the remaining fog in my brain.

He and Leoben help me to sit up as he offers me a glass of water. When I can feel my throat start to return to normal, I lean back into the pillows behind me and look up at the roof of the tent. Both of them are looking at me, waiting for me to say something.

“What happened after Cavil and Doral hit me?” I asked finally looking at the two of them fully. 

“You passed out, probably from the pain,” Leoben said as he took a seat next to me, “Doral and Cavil told me to get you to somebody and then bring you back to Colonial One. I picked you up and brought you here. I figured you probably wouldn’t want to see Simon again.”

His eyes never left mine as he spoke, and I thought I saw regret in his gaze, but I didn’t have time to think about it much before Cottle’s voice drew my attention to him.

“You have several ribs that were broken again as well as a partially collapsed lung, young lady,” he said taking out a cigarette, “You’re lucky it didn’t fully collapse or you wouldn’t be awake right now.”

“When can I leave, Doctor?” I asked while sitting up in the bed, wincing slightly at the pain that radiated from my chest.  
Cottle looked at me as if I had grown another head before he looked to the cylon next to me. Shaking his head, he took the cigarette out of his mouth before looking directly at me.

“I’ve done all I can for you at the moment,” he said, “I would suggest that you stay here over night so that I can make sure your breathing stays normal, but if you have to go, I guess I can’t really stop you,” he finished while looking at Leoben.

“Jack,” I reached out to touch Leoben’s arm, “He has helped me a lot, and he is going to help me get in contact with Bill. He isn’t a threat, Jack.”

Cottle turned his attention back to me, “Do you really expect me to believe that this cylon can be trusted after you come in here with so many injuries that I lost count?”

“Jack, please,” I beg him, grabbing his hand as well, “I trust him. I can’t tell you why, but please at least trust me.”

“I do trust you, Laura,” he said squeezing my hand, “but it is going to take a lot longer for me to trust him.”

Nodding to him, I turn back to Leoben to see him looking at me. My hand was still on his arm, and he placed his hand on top of mine. He picks my hand up and studies it before placing it on the bed next to me. 

“I will tell the others that you are in no condition to go back,” he said as he stood and headed to the exit.

“Leoben, wait!” I watch as he stops and slowly turns to look at me, “I thought you said that they wanted me back on Colonial One when I was awake?”

“They did,” he nodded before pausing to look at Dr. Cottle, “but you have been through too much. If I take you back, they will just continue to torture you. I’ll deal with them. You need to rest.”

I saw Cottle visibly jerk back at Leoben’s words, and I let myself smile for the first time in almost two months. 

“Thank you, Leoben,” I sighed, thinking about an afternoon of rest, “Oh! Also, I think Chief Tyrol will have what we need to get into contact with Admiral Adama.”

Nodding, Leoben approached my bed and took my hand again, “I will figure out a way to get in contact with him…Just rest, Laura.” 

He brings my hand to his lips and lightly kisses the back of my hand.

“Leoben, please don’t,” I say as I pull my hand away from his grasp. 

He seemed to understand and quickly left the med tent before anything else could be said or done. I heard Cottle clear his throat next to me and as I turned, I saw a look of confusion and curiosity cross his face.

“Would you like to tell me what the hell is going on?” he growled while pulling up a chair.

“I don’t want to talk about it, Jack.”

“What about talking about the parts that you are comfortable talking about,” he shrugged, placing his half smoked cigarette back into his mouth. 

Taking a deep breath, I decided to tell him.

“He has been taking care of me, Jack,” at his skeptical look I decided to continue with a few more details, “He has been protecting me the best he can and helping me avoid any trouble. He offered to help me get Bill back and get everyone off this fraking planet.”

“You do realize that he isn’t just helping you to be nice, right?” Jack scoffed.

“What are you talking about?” I asked. 

I knew what he was going to say before he said it, but part of me wanted to deny what I already knew.

“That machine is acting like a love sick puppy!” Jack yelled, “He doesn’t want to protect you because he has a conscious. He wants to protect you because he is attached to you.”

“I don’t want to think about that, Jack,” I shake my head, “If dealing with him means that I can get everyone out of here and get back to Bill…then I just have to go along with it. He hasn’t done anything to me to warrant concern.”

I decided to leave out the fact that he had been a part of raping me, but other than that, Leoben had been nothing but helpful. He even seemed to truly regret what he had done to me. 

“Laura,” Jack said as he came a little closer to me, “He brought you in here and wouldn’t let anybody touch you but me. He helped me undress you and even told me where each of your bruises were so that I wouldn’t hurt you. He never left your side the entire time you were out and just now he kissed your hand.”

I look down at the hospital gown that I am wearing and I just now realize that the red dress is gone. I bring the blanket at my waist up to my chest before looking back at Cottle. He looks older than before, and as I study his face, I can see that he is tired. 

“I need to get everyone out of here,” I whisper, suddenly overcome with emotion.

“I know that you want to save everyone, but you don’t have to sacrifice yourself to do that.”

“I really do think that he will help us,” I say referring to Leoben.

Sighing loudly, Cottle shakes his head before heading towards the entrance to the curtain, “Get some rest, Laura.”

I curl up on my side and for the first time in a while, I am able to drift off into a peaceful sleep that is full of dreams of Bill and Galactica. 

About an hour later, I awake to the sound of Cottle yelling at somebody. I can hear a few people scream in what seems to be fear, and before I have time to process what might be going on, the curtain around my bed is pulled back. I see Doral and Sharon come through with two centurions behind them. Cottle comes rushing forward trying to push them out of the tent only to be grabbed by one of the centurions.

“You will unhook her from everything,” Doral said pointing towards me, “or we will just rip everything out. Your choice.”

Cottle stared at them for a moment before he turned to me, and after I nodded, he started to unhook the IV and monitors. 

“She really needs to stay here,” Cottle said as he continued to work on me, “She is not ready to be up and about.”

“She won’t be doing too much, Doctor,” Sharon says as she rolls her eyes.

“That is unless she decides to misbehave again,” Doral threw in, “Although, even then she would just have to lie back and take whatever is dealt her.”

I was surprised to see Leoben rushing into the tent at that moment, “Cavil wants us to hurry up and bring her to the stage.”

I look at him and can see the struggle in his eyes. He had tried to stop them, but it seems they had other ideas. As Cottle unhooked the last of the wires, he gently squeezed my arm before backing up a bit. He offered me his arm to help me out of the bed and on to my shaking legs. I wobbled a bit before I found my balance and straighten my body slowly. The pain was back, but it wasn’t as bad as the last time. 

Doral stepped forward and grabbed the red dress off of a nearby chair, “Put this on, now.”

I grabbed the dress from his hands and waited for them to leave. When nobody made a move to leave, I felt a shiver run down my spine and began to take off the hospital gown. Cottle came to stand in front of me to offer a semblance of privacy, and he helped to get the gown over my chest and head when he saw me wince in pain. Once I was dressed with Jack’s help, I mouthed a ‘thank you’ to him and began to walk towards the cylons. 

Doral grabbed me from the side and held my waist, “I think you look great in that dress, Laura. Now all we have to do is get you to Baltar and then you and I can continue where we left off yesterday before we were interrupted.”

I try not to look at him as he says this an inch from my ear. Sharon seems to have lost interest and is already heading towards the tent exit. Leoben is trying hard not to look at Doral and I, but when he catches Doral out of the corner of his eye trying to kiss my neck, he breaks in.

“We need to get going, Doral,” he says, his voice full of tension, “Cavil is going to be pissed if we don’t get back soon.”

“What’s wrong?” Doral laughs, pulling me tighter to his side making me wince, “You don’t like me playing with your toy?”

Leoben turns on his heels quickly and leaves the tent. Doral continues to laugh and motions for the centurions to follow us. I am partially glad that he has a hold of me because my weak legs were already shaking under my weight with just the few steps I took earlier. As we exit the tent, I am met with the faces of several of the civilians as well as several of the former Galactica crew. I caught sight of Chief Tyrol and he nodded at me. That must mean that Leoben got a message to him. 

I keep that thought in my mind as we continue through the ‘streets’ of New Caprica. Everybody is looking at me, and completely ignoring the cylons at my side. As we continue walking, I take to nodding to each person as I meet their eyes. I don’t want to let these people down, and I will not let a few cylons change my mind. I can see the stage now, and Baltar and Six are standing next to each other addressing the crowd. Baltar is going on and on about cooperating with the cylons. 

We were about to make it to the stage when a young girl by the name of Maddie came running up to me. She grabbed me around the knees and held on for dear life. Both Doral and Sharon went to pull her away, but I leaned down to pull her into my chest, holding her close. She was crying, and as I brushed my hands through her hair and tried to sooth her, the cylons around me didn’t know what to do. 

“Ms. Roslin,” Maddie sobbed into my chest, “Where have you been? We’ve all missed you.”

She pulls away from me to look at my face. I smile at her and lightly brush the hair out of her face. Tears stains are clearly visible on her face, and as I look at her, my heart breaks. Maddie has been one of my best students, and seeing her now makes me miss all of them. I don’t want to think about anything that the cylons may have done to the parents of my students. 

“I’ve missed all of you too, Maddie,” I say bringing her to my chest again.

“Run along to find your parents, you little brat,” Sharon says as she rips Maddie from my arms. 

“Let her go!” I reach forward but I am stopped by metallic hands grabbing my upper arms and pulling me back.

“We don’t want any more trouble,” Leoben said as he stepped forward and took the girl from Sharon, “Go find your parents,” he said to Maddie as he gently pushed her towards the crowd of people.

When Maddie turns to look at me, I smile and nod at her, “It’s alright, sweetheart.”

Once Maddie made it to the crowd of onlookers, Doral took over for the centurion holding me. We continued to the stage where Baltar was nervously stumbling through a mess of a speech. Six and D’Anna stood to his left and Cavil was to his right. Behind the four of them stood twelve centurions, and as we got closer to the stairs, they all moved to face us. Doral let go and nudged me towards the stairs next to the stage.

I made it to the first stair without a problem, but when I went to take the next step, pain shot through my whole body and my legs gave out. I was caught by arms quickly wrapping around my waist. They were gentle but firm and they managed to miss some of the larger bruises and my injured ribs. When I look up, I see Leoben helping me to my feet and supporting most of my weight as we make it up the remaining steps. I expected him to let go of me as soon as we cleared the steps, but he continued to help me until we were next to Cavil. 

“Ahh, Laura!” Baltar called as he approached me, “How good of you to join us. Now we can get to the acceptance and compliance part of the speech.”

As he turned to address those who had gathered in front of the stage, I scanned the crowd and saw the faces of my students. Most of their parents were there too, but some of them were missing. A lot of the Galactica crew members that had settled were also here, but Tigh and Starbuck were nowhere to be seen. My eyes landed on Chief Tyrol, and as he offered up a small smile, I knew that he had gotten the message. Looking back down towards Maddie who had pushed her way to the front of the crowd, I made a decision. We would wait for Bill and fight the whole way through it. 

Now Cavil was talking alongside Baltar, “We would like to offer our support to all of you if you simply agree to comply with our demands.”

Baltar shook Cavil’s hand while furiously wiping sweat from his brow, “I think we can all agree that we would love to help the cylons in exchange for peace. Which reminds me, if there are any willing people who would like to join a police force to work with the cylons, applications are now open.”

“To show you that we mean no harm if you cooperate,” Cavil said as he turned slightly to gesture to me, “Your former President has agreed to speak on our behalf.”

I step forward and Baltar ran to my side to help me to the podium. When his arm went around me, I pushed it away and continued to walk forward. Stepping up to the podium, I took a deep breath and looked straight at the people that I had served.

“The cylons want me to tell you all to cooperate with them and to allow them to take control over this planet,” I say calmly, “I know that we have all suffered at their hands, and I also know that the loss we have experienced cannot be rectified. They tell me that they do not want to hurt us. They say that they simply want to make sure that we are subdued. If we cooperate, they say that we will simply live as a submissive group…After taking all of this into concern and the way that I have been treated, I beg of you to not let them break you. Please, do not do anything that will make them harm you but-”

I am cut off by Cavil grabbing my and pulling me away from the podium as cries of outrage are heard from the crowd. The centurions behind us move towards the edge of the stage and point their weapons at the crowd. 

“No!” I scream as I struggle to get out of Cavil’s grasp, “Don’t!”

“You should have just agreed to the occupation, Laura!” Cavil growls in my ear. 

“They didn’t do anything!” I yell still trying to break free, “I’m the one that caused the trouble. They haven’t done anything wrong!”

Cavil turns to look at the crowd before turning to Doral and then back to me, “You are going to spend some quality time with Doral and I while the others get everything under control.”

I swallow hard before nodding, “No one will be hurt?”

“No one will be killed,” he said passively, “They may be roughed up if they resist, but if you agree to be at our will for a while, none of them will die.”

Taking one last look at the crowd that was growing increasingly uneasy, I nod. Cavil looks to Six and Sharon before he and Doral lead me away from my people and back to the detention center. I really hope that we get into contact with Bill soon, because I don’t know how much more of this I can take.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since we didn’t see a lot of the inner workings of New Caprica, I am not sure if this would have been possible, but I am going to do it anyway for my story.

One Month, Three Weeks, 4 Days

Two days ago I was dressed up and paraded in front of Baltar and the cylons. Two days ago I woke up in a bed with Cottle and Leoben standing over me. Two days ago my heart stopped as I watched the centurions point their weapons at the crowd of unsuspecting people. Two day ago, Doral and Cavil led me to my cell.

I am still not sure how it happened or what exactly happened. One minute, Doral and Cavil have me pinned down and are delivering blow after blow to my already sore body, and the next, Six came in and stopped them. She whispered something to them and they were gone. Nobody has been to visit me since. I am still getting the few meals a day, but other than that I am being completely ignored. 

I was prepared to take whatever torture they were going fix me with for saving my people, but suddenly there was nothing. I am always on edge thinking about how they could come in at any moment, but it has been two days and nothing has happened. Hopefully they didn’t find out about Leoben helping me to get in contact with Bill. The idea of being able to talk to Bill again was the only thought keeping me sane at this point.

The door to my cell creeks open and in walks a form that I am beginning to get used to. Leoben comes to a stop right inside the room and waits for the door to close behind him. He is silent as he looks at me, and although I cannot see his face, I can tell by the way he is standing that he is tense. As he approaches me and blocks the blinding light, I can see sorrow in his eyes. He stops in front of me and I can see him mouth the words, ‘They are watching,’ so I nod as discreetly as possible. 

“Cavil had to attend to another person and Doral was pulled away to help with the resistance that is forming. They asked me to step in and take their place,” he said while not looking in my eyes.

He steps forward and grabs my throat before pressing me up against a wall. He brings his body in full contact with mine and uses it to hold me up and take some of the pressure off of my throat. Now that I can breathe, I can focus on the fact that he is trying to slip a note into my hand. I feel the paper brush against my fingers and I quickly grab it and hide it in my hand. 

Bringing his lips to my ear he whispers, “Chief made contact, and I can get you about 5 minutes to talk to Adama. Read the note.”

As he pulls away, I try to hide the tears that are in my eyes at the thought of hearing Bill’s voice again. The same voice that I had fallen asleep as it read aloud the words of our favorite books. Leoben loosens his grip and lets me slide down the wall and then crouches to my level. I pretend to catch my breath as his hand reaches for mine. When I look at him, I can see sadness and doubt in his eyes.

“I am going to have to hurt you, Laura,” he said quietly, “They are watching and they are expecting me to hurt you. I will try my hardest to make sure that it is mostly for show. If I am too hard on you, all you have to do is signal me. Whether that be grabbing my arm or whispering me to stop, I will stop.”

He was begging me with his eyes to understand, so I squeezed his hands before responding.

“What would you tell them if they see you suddenly stop?” I watch as he tries to think of something, “I know that you don’t want to do this, but if you don’t they will kill you and never let you back in here. Do what you need to do, and don’t worry about me.”

He looked like he was going to disagree, so I quickly shook my head and stood up.

“I already told you that I will not make my people cooperate with you,” I growl and watch as he bows his head before standing up to meet me. 

“If you cooperate,” Leoben says as he slowly starts to fall into the charade, “You will not be severely harmed.”

“I’d rather it be my pain than theirs,” I say hoping he understands why I am doing this.

Grabbing my upper arms, he threw me across the cell and onto the thin mattress in the corner. Now I know what he meant by trying not to hurt me. He came at me and grabbed my face in his hand, but the hesitance was still present in his gaze. Shaking his head lightly, he slapped me across the face. Unlike the blows that I had previously received at the hands of the cylons, this one barely even stung. When he went to punch me, I instantly curled in on myself only to realize that the blow never came. He stopped short before hitting me. 

“I am going to lie on top of you and pretend to kiss you,” he said as he delivered another fake blow to my abdomen, “You just need to struggle a bit. I will make sure to keep as much of my weight off of you as possible.”

I nodded and felt him shift and push me down with him onto the mattress. His face was about an inch from mine by the time he settled in.

“I am just going to kiss the corner of your mouth,” he whispered, “is that okay?”

“Leoben, I told you that I understood what you had to do. Just do it.”

He leaned forward and kissed the side of my mouth as I pretended to fight against him. He was resting most of his weight on his arms that were next to my shoulders and his knee that was between my legs. Suddenly, the cell door was thrown open and Sharon came rushing in. 

“We need to help the others,” she said as she looked down at us, “there was a problem at Baltar’s speech.”

Leoben looked down at me and winked. I had to try hard not to laugh at the fact that he was now smiling at the Sharon’s ignorance. Instead, I focused my attention on the cylon behind him.

“You let him speak again?” I asked not even trying to hide the mirth from my voice, “Haven’t you guys learned your lesson with him? Nobody is going to listen to him.”

Leoben quickly caught my attention and pleaded me to stop with his eyes. 

Catching on to his warning, I instantly try to amend my statement, “They aren’t going to listen to anyone. They are scared and fraking pissed, and there is no way to get their cooperation without letting them leave this mud ball of a planet.”

Sharon rolled her eyes at me before leaving the room and closing the door behind her.

“Read the note, Laura,” he said softly before smiling at me and kissing my cheek one last time.

He was up and out of the cell before I had time to think about his affectionate display. I sat up and looked at the door in front of me before I pulled out the note I had tuck into the waistline of my pants. As I unfold it, my heart starts to race at the thought of getting into contact with Bill. 

You will hear three knocks on the door.  
Get ready to leave and have everything you need to say ready.  
15 minutes later I will be back to get you.

After reading that note, I could swear that the next couple of hours seemed to go by slower than I ever thought possible. My dinner arrived an hour and a half ago, and I still haven’t even touched it. The excitement at being able to talk to Bill again has me smiling like an idiot. I really hope that none of the cylons were watching because then they would know that something was wrong. Or they might think that I have finally gone crazy, and I don’t know why, but I find that amusing. 

The three knocks come about 10 minutes later, and as I try to think of all the things that I could say to Bill, I can’t seem to get three words out of my mind. Maybe I should tell him, in case things go wrong and we are stuck here or if one of us dies. As I think about it more, I realize that I have to tell him no matter what. Leoben is now at the door and ushering me to him.

“We have to hurry,” he says as he grabs my arm gently but firmly and beings down the hall, “If anybody or thing approaches us, let me do the talking.”

I smile and quickly follow him down the corridor and through a series of hallways. When we reach a thick door, he touches his hand to a side panel and it instantly opens. He leads me through the streets of New Caprica behind the various tents and structures that had been set up. When we reach a tent that I believe belongs to the Chief, he checks left and right before pushing me in. He follows immediately after and we are met with the sight of Chief Tyrol and his wife. 

“Chief,” I gasp as I take in the sight of this man in front of me, “I have to say that it is good to see a friendly face around here.”

I am a bit surprised when he pulls me into a hug, but I return the embrace all the same.

“It’s good to see you too, Madame President,” he said, “If you follow me, I will take you down to the bunker.”

I walked with him until we were all in a bunker that held several pieces of computer equipment that looked both human and cylon. I also noticed a man standing in the corner with his back to us, but I could tell it was none other than Col. Tigh. 

“Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes, Col.?” I ask jokingly, but as he turns around I can’t help but think about the irony in that statement. 

“You have quite the way with words, don’t you Roslin?” Tigh growled as he approached me.

Standing in front of me was definitely Saul Tigh, but where one of his eyes used to be, there was now a crude excuse for an eye patch. He noticed that I was staring at his missing feature and chuckled sadly.

“They wanted to know where the Old Man went and information about the resistance,” he shook his head and took a seat in a nearby chair, “I told them I didn’t know anything and they didn’t like that too much…So tell me why this fraking toaster contacted Chief here saying that you asked him to?”

Sighing, I look back at Leoben who remained at the entrance to the bunker, “Because that is what happened. I trust him, okay? Hasn’t he helped you guys get the right frequency to broadcast out to the fleet?”

I looked to the Chief who nodded before looking back over to Tigh, “Yes he has, but this could all be a trap to get Bill here just to blow him up!”

Leoben stepped forward and placed his hand on my lower back to keep me from talking, “I know that you have no reason to trust me, but please know that I do not wish to harm Adama when he returns. I will make sure to help you get off of this planet and get away.”

“And I am guessing that we are just supposed to take your word on this?” Tigh said sarcastically.

“Saul,” I say, slowly stepping towards him, “I trust him.”

Tigh looked up at me and held my gaze as he spoke, “Why?”

I shook my head, “Please, just trust me.”

“I am going to need more than that, Laura,” Tigh growled, “I am going to need a frak load more if I am going to trust a Toaster!”

“I can’t tell you,” I choked out, hoping that he would see how uncomfortable I was with this.

“You can see my fraking scars,” Tigh said as he stood up and got in my face, “If you are telling me that you don’t want to talk about the few times they slapped you around because you can’t… then we can’t help you.”

“Sir!” I hear the Chief bark from behind me.

“Chief, unless you are going to tell me exactly what happened to make her trust this fraker, then you have no reason to be talking!”

They stared at each other for a long moment before the Chief turned away and began working behind the computer station they had put together. Tigh turned back to her and waited for a response. 

Leoben saved me again by stepping closer to me a speaking, “If you think that they went easier on her just because of who she is you are wrong. They were and still are harder on her than they were on you. You are out and free. Laura is still stuck in one of the cells with nothing but a mattress and a few meals. You know how bad it is, and she is still there.”

Tigh looked between Leoben and me before he shook his head and walked off to join the Chief.

“I expect an explanation at some point,” Tigh grumbled. 

I decided not to dwell on it and followed suit. Once in front of the monitors, Tyrol and Leoben each inputted a few things and made sure that everything was running before I heard the distinct sound of static on the other line. I sat for a few tense seconds and waited to hear his voice. 

All of a sudden I hear him, “Galactica Actual, go!”

Tigh spends a few minutes talking to him, mentioning some plan that they had come up with, but it all seemed to be handled. Tigh told him to wait a minute before he passed the microphone over to me.

“Bill?” I say softly, fighting back tears of joy.

The line was quiet for a while before his voice came back, “Laura? How are you? I can’t believe you are there…”

“Well,” I laughed, “I thought you might be a little too comfortable out there.”

“I never wanted to leave you, Laura,” his voice turned serious, “I had no choice, and it broke my heart to have to leave you down there. If I could have saved you-”

“No, Bill,” I stop him, “You had to leave, or you would have been killed. At least we have you to come back for us.”

“I’m so glad you are okay, Laura,” he breathed into the receiver, “What are things like in those stupid tents?”

I hesitated a bit before answering his question, “Same as usual.”

Tigh grabbed the microphone from me before saying, “She’s been stuck in cylon detention ever since they landed here.”

I snatched it back before he could say anything else, “I’m fine, Bill. So when are you going to come get us?”

“Laura,” Leoben’s voice called from beside me, “We only have about a minute left.”

“What the hell is that cylon doing there?!” Bill yelled.

“You didn’t tell him?” I turned to Tigh, “Oh, never mind. Bill, he helped me get out of the detention center to come here.”

“I still don’t like it, Laura,” he said angrily.

“Laura, we need to go now,” Leoben said as he grabbed my hips.

“Wait!” I brought the microphone to my mouth one more time, “Bill Adama, I love you.”

I could hear the smile in his voice as he said, “And I love you, Laura Roslin.”

I handed the microphone to Tigh and let Leoben lead me towards the entrance to the bunker and out through the tent. As we stepped out into the crisp night air, Leoben pulled me closer to him and tried to shield me from the biting wind.

“They have a plan to get everyone out of here,” he said against the shell of my ear, “When they get closer to figuring everything out, I will bring you back for longer to talk to through it.”

As we made it back to my cell sometime later, he had filled me in when he thought he would sneak me out again. Before he left, he pulled me to him in a hug.

“I will make sure you get off this planet alive, Laura,” he kissed my forehead before turning to go. 

“Leoben,” I quickly grabbed his arm and spun him around to face me, “Thank you for everything you have done for me. Not only contacting Bill, but also for not hurting me earlier and for protecting me.”

He pulled me to him again, but this time he kissed me on the mouth before quickly pulling away, “Anything for you, Laura.”

Again he was gone before I could think much about his advances. Maybe Dr. Cottle had been right about his attachment to me, but right now I had the sound of Bill Adama’s voice in my head. It was on a loop of him saying he loved me. That was all I needed to know that I would survive whatever the cylons brought.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cavil notices something weird going on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t think it would have been possible for Laura and Leoben to be working together and the others not to notice

One Month, 4 Weeks, 5 Days

8 days ago I was able to hear Bill’s voice for the first time in what felt like forever. 8 days ago I found out that Tigh and Tyrol had a plan with Bill to get everyone off New Caprica. 8 days ago, Leoben pulled his punches, literally, and helped me escape my cell for a bit. 8 days ago I took in my first breath of fresh air in a while. 8 days ago, Leoben kissed me after he helped me back to my cell. 8 days ago, everything changed.

Since that night, I haven’t seen Leoben at all. D’Anna and Simon stop in to ask me the same fraking questions every so often. I was waiting for them to do something to me like what they did to Saul, but it hasn’t happened yet. Part of me knows that what they already did to me was just as bad, but I can’t help but worry that they are just waiting for an excuse to come after me again. Speaking of Saul, I am pretty sure he is not going to let me go back there without talking to him about why I trust Leoben so much. 

I don’t want to tell him before I tell Bill. Of course that is assuming that I tell Bill. I don’t want him to know what happened. I don’t want him to see me as a used woman. I also know that he will blame himself for everything that has happened to them. I don’t want him to live with something that he had no control over, which means that I cannot tell Bill what happened. So Saul cannot know either. There is a knock on my door and I smile a bit thinking about what news Leoben has for me today, but when the door opens it’s not him.

“Not who you were expecting, huh?” Cavil says as he enters the room followed by Doral.

I fight the urge to bring my legs to my chest and hide the best I can. Cavil shuts the door behind them while Doral swings a chair out from behind him and places it in the middle of the cell. He then reaches for my arm and drags me onto the chair. Cavil walks behind me and I can feel him securing my hands to the chair behind my back.

“We have all agreed that Leoben needed a break from you,” Doral said as he tied my feet to the legs of the chair, “And Cavil and I never got our time with you.”

“Did you think we wouldn’t want to keep our deal?” Cavil whispered into my ear, “I was a bit preoccupied while Ellen Tigh convinced me to let her husband out, but now I am free.”

“And now that we have been able to put a type of police force in effect,” Doral crouched in front of me, “We don’t have to worry about everybody right now. We can focus on you.”

“We had to take care of everything first, but we did make a deal,” Cavil kissed my neck, “And we always hold fast to our deals.”

I move my head to the side hoping to cut off his access to my neck, and I do. He rings his hands to my arms and begins to rub them up and down while brushing his lips against my jaw. Doral reaches for the waistband of my pants and lightly brushes his fingertips against my skin. I shift back into the chair and away from him, but it doesn’t help much. Suddenly I remember our deal. One thing that Leoben had told me was that the civilians had to bury a few people after the riot.

“Did anybody die after the ceremony?” I ask as their hands continue to roam my body.

Cavil laughs as he continues to kiss every exposed inch of my face, “There were a few people that decided to try to take out one of the centurions, but we were faster.”

“Don’t worry though,” Doral said as he started to pull down my pants, “They were buried by friends.”

“Get your hands off of me then,” I say calmly.

“Nice try, Laura,” Doral says as my underwear is revealed, “But we had a deal.”

“Exactly,” I say smugly, “Now get your fraking hands off of me and go find another toy to play with!”

Cavil’s lips stilled against my skin and Doral’s head flew up to look at the cylon behind me. Cavil stood up and came around to face me, pushing Doral to the side. 

“What the hell are you talking about, Roslin?” Cavil sneered.

“Our deal was that I would be yours for however long you wanted me to be yours, if and only if,” I leaned forward to look him right in the eye, “Nobody was killed. I asked if people would die and you said they would only be hurt, not killed…And as you stated several times, you cylons ‘always hold fast on your deals,’ isn’t that right? Or did I hear you wrong earlier?”

Doral looks like a fish out of water, with his eyes wide and his mouth trying to form words, but Cavil looks furious. He slaps my face hard before grabbing the hair at the base of my neck and forcing me to look at him.

“We will get our time with you,” he growled, “And don’t think that Leoben will be able to protect you for much longer,” I visibly recoil at the mention of Leoben’s help, “Did you think we didn’t notice his fascination with you? He has been taking it easy on you, and while we won’t forbid him from seeing you, we are going to make sure that he is accompanied by at least one other cylon.”

He throws my head back and quickly heads for the cell door, Doral following close behind. I watch as the door closes and I can’t help but smile at the fact that I had out-smarted them, but then I realized that somebody had to give their life for my freedom. I know it is selfish of me, but I hope that it wasn’t Chief or Tigh, because without them, I’m not sure we would get out of here. As I look down at myself I realize that I may be free from their advances, but I am still tied to this fraking chair. Rocking back and forth, I try to wiggle free, but it’s useless.

About an hour later, the cell door opens and Leoben rushes in. He quickly unties me from the binds and helps me up from the chair. He throws the chair to the side before he drags me over to the mattress and throws me onto it. He unbuttons his pants before lying in top of me and pressing his lips to mine. I push against him and remember what he said about squeezing his arm, so I do. He breaks away and looks down at me.

“Leoben, please stop!” I say breathlessly, “What is going on?”

“They are headed this way,” he shakes his head and looks over his shoulder, “They think that I have been in here for the past half an hour, but I was talking to Tyrol. Cavil told me to get in here and take care of you, so I waited outside the door until they were gone. They are coming back now and I need it to look convincing. I should have told you, but I am in a bit of a rush.”

He brings his mouth back down on mine before I can respond, and I fight back the urge to bite his lips. I know that he is doing this to put on a show, but after everything that Cottle said and all of the advances Leoben has made towards me, I can’t help but doubt his motives. The door to the cell opens again, and this time all of the models but Six come in. Leoben turns around and looks at them.

“I’m sort of in the middle of something,” he smirks before going back to kissing me and letting his hands run beneath my shirt.

“Actually,” D’Anna steps forward, “I don’t think we are interrupting much.”

“You expect us to believe that you are actually doing everything that we say?” Sharon added.

“All of us know how you feel about her,” Simon added a bit hesitantly, “and there are doubts as to whether or not you are following orders.”

Leoben stilled as the questions and accusations were thrown at him. He looked down at me and I could see the fear in his eyes before he smirked and rolled off of me. To keep up the act, I scramble to the corner of the room away from the mattress. Leoben stands up and pulls up his pants.

“Believe me when I tell you that whatever I may feel for Dr. Roslin,” he added extra emphasis on my last name, “Does not harm our purpose here in any way.”

“Why should we believe you when you are spending so much time with her?” Doral asked.

“You always request to be the one to interrogate her,” Cavil paused, “and yet you are not getting any answers from her.”

Leoben shrugged before looking back at me, “What can I say? I enjoy having sex with her more than I like asking questions. It’s as simple as that.”

“While I will admit that it is rather tempting to want to frak Roslin,” Doral answered, “I still do not see how this proves to us that you are not just hindering our process.”

“What’s wrong Doral? Are you jealous?” Leoben chuckled, “I am simply enjoying the pleasures that this planet offers.”

“No more of this nonsense,” D’Anna rolled her eyes, “He obviously cares for her too much and doesn’t want to see her get hurt. He will probably help her escape if Adama if ever comes back.”

I am shocked when Leoben grabs the chair near him and throws it across the room, “I will not let her be taken away from me by Adama!”

Cavil smiles at his reaction before he looks back at me. I know that I didn’t hide my shock in time at his response, and he is loving every bit of it. He walks past Leoben and bends down in front of me, grabbing my throat and hoisting me up to my feet. I am pressed flat against the wall and the room starts to spin as Cavil continues to smirk at me.

“What would you do if I tried to kill her right now?” Cavil asked Leoben, never looking away from me.

“I would ask Six to punch you harder than you’ve ever been punched when you woke up on the base star,” Leoben ground out.

“You didn’t seem to be this protective of her when we were both having our way with her. What’s changed?” he tightened his hold on my throat and I was starting to see black spots.

“We weren’t hurting her like you are now,” Leoben moved towards us and stopped just inches behind Cavil, “We weren’t trying to kill her.”

Cavil smiled before letting me go, “I will admit that she was a really good frak.”

I sucked in as much air as I could and had to stop coughing before the spots would go away. They were all quiet and watching the exchange between Cavil and Leoben. Leoben was glaring at Cavil and Cavil was grinning like the cat that got the canary. 

“If you want her for your own,” Cavil said slowly, “and if you want us to believe you, you need to fight for her.”

“What?” Leoben asks confused.

“You heard me,” he smiled even more, “If you are able to beat each one of us without needing to download at all, then we will let you continue to visit. You lose and download, you will no longer be able to see her, and she will be left to the rest of us.”

I know my jaw hit the ground at Cavil’s offer. There was no way that Leoben would be able to fight all of them off without downloading. They would rip him apart and I would be left without protection. I would not have any access to Bill. On the other hand, if he refused, the same thing was likely to happen. I watch as the others smile at each other and I know that they are thinking along the same lines.

“And if I win?” Leoben challenged.

“I told you, she is yours.” 

“I want more,” Leoben shakes his head before continuing, “I want to be able to take her out of here and show her off. I want to be able to take her out to the mountains and the pastures and make love to her out there.”

Cavil scoffed and Sharon laughed, but Leoben stayed firm.

“If Six can do it with Baltar, I want to be able to do it with Laura,” he looks at me quickly before looking back to Cavil.

Cavil stayed silent for a long while before he nodded in agreement, “Okay.”

Cavil turned to me and yanked me to my feet. He led me out of my cell and further into the detention center. When we reached what looked like a large courtyard, Cavil gestured for two centurions to take me from him and sit me down on a bench. I realized at that moment that they intended to fight this out right now. They were going to settle this right here and now and my fate was going to be decided probably in the next few minutes. 

“Pic your first opponent,” Cavil said calmly to Leoben.

I watched as Leoben looked at each of the models in front of him before he pointed towards Doral. I couldn’t believe that he would pick Doral first. He was strong and Leoben would have a hard time taking him down easily, but I figured that he must have a reason for picking him first. I watched as Doral took off his coat and handed it to Sharon. They each took up stances and waited for the other one to make the first move. 

Doral struck first and hit Leoben’s arm as he brought it up to block the shot. Leoben brought his other arm in and up and caught the corner of Doral’s jaw. They continued to circle each other after the first few blows, and just as Doral was going to strike, Leoben swept his feet out from under him and quickly just onto of him to snap his neck. I flinched at the sound of the breaking bones, but I was happy that Leoben had won the first round so quickly. 

“I see you must have learned so moves from Adama at Ragnar,” Cavil sneered, “Or maybe Thrace taught you a few things while she had you tortured. No matter. Who do you pick next?”

“Sharon,” Leoben called out.

I was ready for a long fight, but as soon as Sharon stepped towards him, he reached out and grabbed her. When she was up in the air, he threw her with all of his strength against a nearby wall. Again, the sound of bones ‘breaking had my teeth grinding together, but I was finally starting to believe in him. Up next was D’Anna, and she went pretty quickly as well, which didn’t surprise me in the least. What did catch me off guard was the fact that Leoben called Cavil next instead of Simon. Cavil seemed a bit taken back by his choice as well, but he smiled at me before approaching Leoben.

“I hope you don’t mind having to service Doral and I whenever we want, Laura,” he chuckled darkly.

Chills ran down my spine as I calculated the odds of Leoben winning this one. He was already pretty won out from the few well-placed blows that Doral and D’Anna had thrown, and I know how brutal Cavil can be when he hits. I bite the inside of my cheek and watch with baited breath as the match begins. Cavil throws the first punch and hits Leoben in the chest. Leoben stagers back and is hit again by Cavil, this time on the side of the head. Leoben goes down and lays on the ground while Cavil stands over him.

“You didn’t actually think you could win, did you?” Cavil laughed before turning to me, “You and me are about to have some fun.”

As he got closer to me, I saw movement behind him and realized that Leoben had been able to get up. I kept my eyes on Cavil as Leoben crept closer to Cavil. Suddenly, a rock comes slamming down on Cavil’s head and he slums forward. I quickly move out of the way and try to walk towards Leoben, but the centurions grab me. I then notice that Leoben still has to fight Simon. 

“Simon, do you mind?” Leoben asked weakly.

“Not at all,” he said as he took the side arm attached to Sharon’s hip and tossed it to Leoben. 

Leoben pointed it at him and pulled the trigger. I looked at him and raised an eyebrow at what just happened. He just shook his head and pulled me to him. I was so happy to be free that I wrapped my arms around his waist and hugged him close. I couldn’t believe that he had actually won.

“I can’t believe you won,” I whispered into his chest.

“I had some pretty good motivation,” he smiled down at me and I know that I blushed under his gaze, “Why don’t I take you to your tent to get cleaned up and then we can go find the Col. And Chief?”

“Thank you,” I gasp at the thought of clean clothes and friendly faces to come.

“I told you I would do anything for you, Laura,” he leaned down a little closer to me, “And I meant it.”

He kissed me again, but this time, he stayed long enough for me to push him away. I stepped back from his embrace and shook my head.

“Leoben-” I try to tell him to stop, but he cuts me off.

“Let’s get you home,” he said before heading towards the exit of the courtyard. 

I follow him and thing about how right Cottle was. I hope Bill gets down here soon.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that the relationship between Laura and Leoben seems to be a bit weird, but hopefully this chapter will give a little more insight.

Two Months, 6 Days

 

Yesterday, Leoben had worn the fight with the cylons before he dropped me off at my tent to get changed and freshen up. He had stayed outside the tent to give me some privacy and probably to make sure that none of the other cylons came back. I took my time to get dressed and put on the heavy dark sweater that Bill had given me along with a pair of pairs and the boots that Kara had found in my size. When I finally walked outside, Leoben was waiting for me and smiled when he saw me.

“You really do look great in anything you wear,” he said. 

I had brushed the comment off and started to walk in the direction that he had motioned. He brought his arm around my back and placed his hand on my hip, pulling me into his side. I could see that several of the settlers were giving looks of pity and compassion, so I tried to pull away from him, only to be grabbed from behind. A gunshot rang out as I was pulled further back and into a tent. I saw Leoben fall to the ground and knew that he was dead. 

I struggled to get out of the grasp as I am lifted into the air and spun around, “Will you stop struggling and just accept the fraking help, woman!” Tigh’s voice cut through my panicked state.

I stopped moving and looked around to find Tigh, Tyrol, and Cottle gathered in the tent. 

“What was that?” I practically yelled at them.

“Well, excuse us for trying to rescue you your highness,” Tigh growled.

“I didn’t need rescuing!” 

“But Madame President,” Tyrol stepped forward, “We figured you would want help getting away from the Leoben model.”

“He is the one that saved me!” I screamed, “He fought the other models to make sure that I could be free from the detention center whenever he could.”

“Young lady,” Cottle broke in, “You can finish your crazy tale about the love sick cylon after I check you over,” he barked before he grabbed my arm and sat me on the bed.

I sat down on the bed and let him poke and prod me as Tigh and Tyrol disappeared down into the bunker, which I was grateful of when Cottle began to pick up my shirt. He pulled it up far enough to look at the fading bruises and the still wrapped ribs. 

“You seem to be healing well. They let you keep your ribs wrapped?” he asked astonished.

“No,” I answered remembering what happened right after Cavil and Doral go me alone, “Cavil and Doral took it off, but Leoben made sure that I got it put back on in secret.”

“Laura,” he sighed before tugging my shirt back down, “I know you don’t want to share why you trust this cylon so much, but I am worried that he is getting a little too attached.”

“He has respected my wishes and stopped every time I ask him to,” I say, frustrated at being questioned for the thousandth time. 

“What do you mean by every time?” he narrowed his eyes, “How many times has he made advances towards you exactly?”

“It’s nothing, Jack. I promise.”

“What kind of advances, Laura?” he asks sternly.

“You are not my father, Jack, and I don’t have to tell you everything,” I say defensively, “I can handle this without you coddling me.”

“You’re right!” he growled, “I am not in charge of you, but the Old Man gave me one very specific job while I was down here. In fact he gave all of us one specific job, and that was to protect you! He didn’t want anything to happen to you down here, and although he may have said that before the toasters came back, I am sure that doesn’t change a thing.”

“He asked all of you to protect me?” I gasp.

“Of course he did! He wasn’t going to let you out of his sight without some kind of reassurance.”

I could not believe that Bill had asked his people to look after me, but it would explain why Kara had spent so much time around the school tent. 

“Madame President,” Tyrol called as he and Tigh emerged from the bunker, “We have the com link up and are going to contact the Admiral in a few minutes.”

“Thank you, Chief,” I stood up and started to follow them back down when Tigh motioned for Tyrol to go back up to Cottle, “Want to tell me what is going on with the cloak and dagger routine?”

“We’ve got some time to kill and I want to know why you were so outraged that we shot the toaster,” he said without looking at me.

“I told you that it is none of your business,” I knew this was coming.

“Yeah well, I am about to talk to the man that I know we both care about, and tell him that he is clear to start the attack in a few days,” he huffed, “But, if I find out that the cylon that helped us is actually telling this to the rest of them, I am going to be pissed. If my best friend is murdered because you are fraking a toaster and won’t tell me, then I am going to blame you.”

I didn’t even feel my hand connect with his cheek until the sound caught up with me. The sting in my hand was nothing compared to the pain I felt in my chest at the idea of being the reason Bill died. 

“You have no idea what you are talking about,” I can feel the tears start to well in my eyes, “I would never do anything to hurt Bill, and you know that.”

“Then tell me why I should trust the cylon,” he said.

“I can’t,” I try to keep my voice steady as the tears threaten to fall.

“Then I am not letting you talk to him,” he shook his head “I can’t let you know what is going on, and risk getting him and his son killed. I am not going to let you break his heart all so that you can have fun down here while he is suffering like the rest of us.”

“Leoben and I are not sleeping together!” I cried out.

“You could have fooled me. I thought you two were just so cozy walking through the streets wrapped around each other,” he stepped closer to me, “Tell me, did you ever really care about Bill, or were you just waiting for something else to come along.”

I tried to slap him again, but he caught my wrist and pulled me closer to him, “You have no right to talk to me that way,” I ground out.

“Either tell me what happened to you in detention, or you are leaving and I will just tell the Old Man that Leoben is keeping you occupied,” he threatened.

I stand there for a minute thinking about his words and the options he had given me. If I hadn’t known it was Tigh in front of me, I would swear that I was back in my cell being given another alternative to betray my people.

“He has been helping me get treated for the wounds and has even volunteered to punish me so that he can pretend to and spare me the pain,” I say deciding to go for the vague truth.

Tigh seemed to think for a moment before speaking, “So you are not going to admit to having sex with Leoben?”

“Why the hell would I admit to something that never happened?” I scoff. 

“Because it did happen,” he said coldly as he watched my face turn from confusion to horror to anger, “You want to know why I got out of detention so early? Or why you don’t see Ellen anymore?”

He steps closer to me and I step back and stubble over a chair before I end up sitting down on it.

“Ellen went to Cavil to negotiate my release,” he said calmly, almost as if he were detached from the memory, “He asked her to spy on us after he released me, but before he released me, he told Ellen a few interesting stories. Before I had to poison my own wife to ensure that this escape would happen without any unnecessary deaths, she shared those stories with me. One in particular involved you and Leoben having sex as Cavil watched.”

I broke at the insinuation that what Cavil said was true, “Leoben and I didn’t have sex, and Cavil may have watched but that was not all he did! Cavil and Leoben raped me! I was forced to have sex with them after I refused to tell them anything about Earth or the possible members of the resistance. Don’t you dare think that I would just throw myself at them because I felt helpless or that I wanted to be with them!”

“Then why the hell do you trust Leoben?!” he yelled.

“Because he said he could help me get back to Bill!” I matched his volume before I realized that I finally understood why I was willing to put up with Leoben’s advances, “He said he could help me get into contact with Bill…and after everything that has happened…everything that we have been through, I was willing to take the chance if it meant seeing him again.”

Suddenly I heard static in the room that was not there when we first started this argument, and then there was a break in the static before a familiar voice came through the com.

“You will see me again Laura,” Bill’s voice, full of sadness and remorse, echoed through the silence.

“Bill?” I gasp before turning back to Tigh, “What did you do?”

“I brought the microphone with me,” he said, “I needed to know that I could trust you and this Leoben model, but Bill needed to know what was going on.”

“That was not your decision to make!” I could feel the tears starting to form again.

“I wanted to know that you were okay, Laura,” Bill’s voice came through again, “I knew you had something to hide after our last conversation, and nobody could give me answers that only you had.”

“You should have asked me, Bill,” I said before leaving the bunker and heading through the tent and out into the streets of New Caprica.

I went straight to my personal tent and opened the flaps before sealing them shut and letting the tears fall. I had wanted to make sure that Bill would never find out about what happened in that cell, or at least be able to control how much I told him and when. Now, Bill knew everything that had happened and all through a microphone while being who knows how many millions of miles away. I was supposed to be able to go back to him and be able to hold him and kiss him as if nothing had ever happened, but now that would never be the case. I laid down on my cot and let my tears sooth me to sleep.

This morning I woke up to find that Leoben was sitting in a chair in my tent, watching me sleep. He didn’t say anything as he waited for me to adjust to the real light of day and not the artificial crap that was fed to me in the cell. He handed me a glass of water and watched as I sat up and slowly drank the contents of the glass.

“I’m sorry to have startled you by being here, but I figured that if I had waited outside, I would have been shot again, “he watched as I stayed silent with my legs curled up against my chest, “You were crying last night, weren’t you?”

“I’m fine,” I say, but when I look away, I know not even an idiot like Baltar would believe me.

He stood up and sat next to me on the cot, “What happened?”

“It’s nothing,” I try to brush his concern off, but he put an arm round my shoulder and pulled me into his side and I felt a sob escape me at the comfort I felt, “Bill found out about everything that happened in the detention cell.”

“And you weren’t the one to tell him?” he asked as he turned us so that we could lie back on the cot.

“I was, but Tigh tricked me into telling him,” I sobbed into is chest, “I didn’t know that Bill was listening and Tigh kept bombarding me with all of these questions about why he should trust you. He threatened to not let me talk to him and said that if Bill died when they came to rescue us, it would all be my fault.”

He pulled me closer and kissed the top of my head, “I know you are upset, but why is it so bad that he knows how strong you are?” 

“He knows about the rape,” I choke out, “He knows that I was not faithful to him. I am dirty now.” 

“You did nothing wrong, Laura,” he soothed, “You couldn’t do anything to stop it without betraying your people. You are so strong, and if he does not understand that, then he does not deserve to be with you.”

He placed his hand under my cheek and gently tilted my head up to look at him. He smiled down at me before he brought his lips down on mine. The arm that was around my shoulders moves lower to encircle m waist as his other hand weaves up the back of my neck to tangle lightly in my hair. He pulls me deeper into the kiss as he slowly rolls over me. I can feel the heat rising and pooling at my center, and I start to kiss him back. His touch is so light that I don’t feel him start to remove my sweater until his warm hands come into contact with my cool skin. He brings his hands up to caress my breasts, as his lips start to break away from mine and travel across my jaw. 

My sweater is removed quickly and so is his shirt. His lips are still trailing down my jaw and towards my neck as he reaches to undo my pants. They unsnap easily and he places his hands on my hips as he slowly pushes them down. I pick my hips up off the cot as his hands continue their trek down my legs and his lips continue to caress my neck. My breaths are coming in heavily now that I am almost naked under him. 

As my pants are thrown off, his lips meet mine again before he whispers, “I love you, Laura.”

Suddenly, I can hear a different voice saying those exact same words. His voice is husky and smooth and a bit distorted by the sounds of air waves. I can see him being the one on top of me right now, kissing me and driving me insane like he always did when he would come planet side. This was all wrong.

“Leoben,” I say breathlessly as I push at his chest, “Wait, we can’t do this,” he is still kissing and caressing me and as he goes to remove my bra, I push harder, “Leoben, stop!”

Instantly, he stills and pulls away slightly, “What’s wrong, Laura? Did I hurt you?”

“No,” I say as I grab for a blanket that Bill had given me and cover my chest, “You didn’t hurt me.”

“Then what’s wrong?” he asked as he brought his hand down to caress my cheek.

I place my hand on his wrist and slowly move his had away from my face, “I can’t do this.”

“Why not, Laura?” he whispered, “It’s alright. If Adama doesn’t love you, I will.”

“He does love me, Leoben, and I love him,” I say gently, “and that’s the point. I can’t betray him like this. You were right. I couldn’t stop what happened before, but I can stop what is happening now.”

“But I love you too, Laura,” he leans back down and kisses me again, “I love you so much,” he deepens the kiss and I have to throw him off to get him to stop.

“Please, Leoben. If you really do love me then you will stop this,” I pleaded with him.

He nodded before stiffly standing up and gathering his lost clothing. He is silent the entire time that the gets dressed, and I know that he is mad at me and possibly himself, but I don’t really know what to do. 

He reaches down to grab my pants before he throws them at me, “Get dressed.”

“Why?” I asked a bit frightened at his change in manner.

“Because I have to take you back to the detention center,” he says caustically, “It’s your choice. You are just going to lose your clothes anyway when you get to your cell. I can take you there in your clothes or your underwear, either is fine with me.”

“Leoben, why are you doing this?” I ask, frozen in my cot.

“Because Cavil was right about you,” he sneered, “He said that you never cared about me, and that even if I won the fight, you still wouldn’t let me touch you.”

“Leoben, I-” 

“Get dressed now, or I will lead you out there in nothing but what you are wearing now,” he interrupted.

I grabbed my sweater and pants and waited for him to leave or turn his back, but he did neither.

“What are you waiting for, Roslin?” he growled.

“I-I thought you…uh, you were going to leave,” I stammer, “Or turn around.”

“You have lost that privilege,” he shook his head, “now get dressed.”

I quickly got dressed and tried to ignore the fact that I could feel his eyes on me as I pulled my pants up over my hips and snapped them closed. My sweater came on next and as I look up, I see him standing right in front of me holding a pair of handcuffs and a centurion is waiting behind him at the entrance of the tent. 

“I heard them coming,” he whispered, “the Sharon that I killed is with them. Just play along and I will have you back out in no time.”

I am so confused now. Actually, confused is probably too small of a word to describe how I am feeling right now. One minute he says he loves me, then he is a complete ass, and now he is on my side again. Maybe Cottle and Tigh were right not to trust him.

“What about earlier?” I ask hesitantly as he slips the cuffs onto my wrists, “You’re not mad, are you?”

Once the cuffs are on, he grabs my hands in his, “Laura, I am not mad at you. I could never be mad at you. I am disappointed yes, and I wish that things could be different, but I told you I would never hurt you on purpose and that I would always be here for you, and I meant it.”

“What about what Cavil said?” 

“He was wrong,” he said softly, “While I now that you will never care for me the way that you do for Adama, you did stick up for me in front of your doctor and Col. Tigh. Plus, you did let me touch you, even if it was a moment of weakness,” he smiled and winked at me, “Now let’s get you there so we can get you out again.”

I followed behind him, still a little skeptical and scared, but I hid it well and was comforted by the fact that he had told the truth. Sharon and a few more centurions were waiting for us outside of my tent. This was going to interesting.


	11. Chapter 11

Two Months and 6 Days (evening)

After Leoben had led me from the tent and back to the detention center, I was sent back to my cell but allowed to keep my clothing on. I didn’t have to wait long before Cavil, Doral, D’Anna, Sharon and Leoben walked into the uncomfortable concrete room. They all looked pretty unhappy except for Leoben, who was trying very hard not to let a smile take over his face. Cavil looked down at me before he grabbed my arms and hauled me to my feet.

“You are going to be Leoben’s pet from now on,” Cavil sneered, “But that does not mean that we won’t have access to you.”

“What’s wrong, Cavil?” I say with as much sarcasm as possible, “Do you have a bit of a headache? Because I’ve heard taking a rock to the head tends to-”

His hands are at my throat and my back is against the wall in an instant, “Watch your tongue, Laura. Leoben is still a bit disappointed about you rejecting him, and I am sure that he might let me have a piece of you sooner than you think.”

“Go frak yourself while you wait,” I spat back.

I saw Doral walk forward from the corner of my eye, but he was stopped by Leoben who shook his head and stepped towards Cavil and me. 

“I’ve got her from here,” Leoben said as he placed his hand on Cavil’s shoulder.

“She needs to be punished for that mouth of hers,” Cavil leaned in towards me, and I could feel his breath against my cheek as I turned away.

“I’ll take care of it,” Leoben assured the angry cylon.

“You’ll punish her here and now,” Cavil stated as he let go of me and backed away slowly.

I could feel my heart rate skyrocket as Leoben nodded and waited for Cavil and the others to make their exit. After everything that happened today, I was still trying to decide if he was playing me or not. As we continued to wait for the other cylons to leave, we realized that they had no intention of leaving.

“We will watch,” Cavil grinned as he looked first at me and then at Leoben, “I want to make sure that she is adequately dealt with.”

I looked to Leoben as well and saw his gaze harden as he gave a stiff nod. He stepped into the space that Cavil had just vacated in front of me and gripped my neck in his hand. I was lifted from the ground and throw across the room to land on the mattress. I roll over onto my back and he is on top of me, pinning my arms under his knees. 

He leans down and roughly grabs my chin in his hand, “I’ll be as gentle as possible,” he whispered.

He crashes his lips to mine before quickly breaking apart and bringing his fist down hard into my abdomen. Although he did not hit me as hard as he possibly could, it still hurt like hell. I know that he has to make it look convincing, but I am not sure he is just doing it to convince them. I saw anger in his eyes earlier, and now is the perfect time for him to take that anger out on me. Another blow is delivered to my side and another and another. I remember what he told me about squeezing his arm if I felt that he was taking it too far, but my arms are pinned under his legs and I can’t get them free. 

His next target seemed to be my jaw as his hand comes down to slap me. My head is spinning as I try to think of some way to let him know that it’s too much. I try looking at him, but with each slap of his hand, my head is thrown to the side and I lose eye contact. He finally stops to lean down and roughly bite my neck. I decide to take my chances and talk to him. 

“It’s too much, Leoben,” I whisper into his ear, hoping the others can’t hear me.

I can feel him kiss the spot that he just bit, “I will calm it down,” he whispered against my skin.

His hands roamed over my chest as he started to push my clothes aside. His motions were jerky and rough, but his touch was gentle. It was a reflection of his personality, and I am met with even more doubt of his intentions. His hands are now just beneath the neck line of my sweater and his fingers are caressing the skin they find there. He brings his mouth to mine and kisses me roughly.

Pulling away, he smiles at me, “I won’t hurt you. Just relax, Laura.”

“Leoben,” D’Anna called from the doorway, “Take her and get out of here.”

I watched as Doral and Sharon scoffed at D’Anna, but Cavil refused to look away from Leoben and me. He was staring right at me, as if he was waiting for me to say something. He was waiting for me to slip up and give him any kind of hint that Leoben means me no harm. I stare back at him and hope that my presidential façade is enough to push him off of his trail. 

Leoben sits up before turning to the group of cylons, “I will make sure to have her back whenever you need her,” he spoke before getting off of me.

I stayed lying on the mattress, waiting for some kind of acknowledgement from Leoben that it was safe to move. Three of the four cylons had already left, but Cavil remained rooted to the spot.

“You will not be able to keep her forever, Leoben,” he said before he turned and walked out of the cell.

Leoben waited for Cavil to close the door and walk away before he turned to me and offered his hand. I took it gently and he helped me to my feet. As I stood up, I doubled over as the pain in my abdomen hit me hard. Leoben caught me and held me to him as the pain slowly started to diminish.

“I didn’t want to-I mean…I didn’t mean to hurt you,” Leoben said softly as his arm tightened around my waist, “I just want to make sure that none of them get the chance to lay a hand on you.”

I pulled away from him, “Can we please not talk about this? I just want to get back to my tent and then the school.”

“Of course,” he nodded, “I will have to stay with you at the school from now on.”

“What?” I turn to him and can’t help but let the confusion show on my face, “Why? I thought the whole reason you did this was so that I could be free.”

“Laura,” he grabbed my hand and when I tried to pull it away, he tightened his grip, “I did this so that you would be safe. I am going to make sure that you are never out of my sight for longer than necessary.”

I shake my head and try once more to get my hand out of his, “Leoben, this isn’t what I thought it was. I-I can’t give you anything you want. I thought that after I was out of here I would be free. Free from all cylons.”

“I can’t do that, Laura,” he pulled me closer, “You are not safe without me. I am not going to let anything happen to you.”

His arms encircle my waist and he bent his head down to capture my lips, but I pulled away. He tried again, but this time I push him away and move to the opposite side of the cell.

“Leoben,” I sighed, “I told you that I can’t do this…that I won’t do this. I just want to help the Admiral get everybody off of this fraking planet.”

“You also want him to open his arms to you,” he said coldly, “but we both know that after the way he found out about what happened he is not going to just let you back into his life. He is not going to just forget about it and love you…but I will, Laura,” he stepped forward and pinned me into a corner, “I will love you more than he ever could. I do love you, Laura.”

His hands came up to cradle my face between them, and he had me look into his eyes. I could see the infatuation that he held for me, but that was all I saw. It was not the look that I was pinning over to see in Bill’s eyes. It was not the look that I tried to hide from him during our meetings. Or maybe it was the same look, but I was not used to seeing it in the eyes of somebody other than Bill. 

“I don’t love you, Leoben,” I say quietly, “I appreciate everything that you have done for me and the colonists, but I can only give you my appreciation.”

Leoben nodded and stepped back, “I understand…however, I still can’t let you out of my sight unless I know you are safe.”

He leads me out of the cell and towards the exit of the detention center. As we walk along the corridors, he keeps a respectable distance between us and I can tell that he is tense. I look around us before I step closer to him and grab his upper arm. He looks down at me and smiles before placing his hand atop of mine and continuing down the hallway and outside. As he leads me through the tents, I notice that we are going back to the tent that housed Tigh and the Chief.

“Leoben,” I tug on his arm and try to turn him in the direction of the school tent, “I really don’t want to face them right now.”

He brushed his fingers across my knuckles and shook his head, “I know you are mad at Tigh, but he is setting up a comm link for you and the Admiral as we speak, and it is going to be for just you two. You have to talk to him, and I’ll make sure that Tigh and Tyrol are gone.”

I realize that we are now in front of the tent and that it is time for me to face the music. Leoben pulls back the tent flap for me before he places his hand on my lower back and gently pushes me forward. Tigh and Tyrol looked up from the table they are sitting at, but neither of them seemed surprised to see me. Looking at the Chief, he gives me a small smile before excusing himself and leaving the tent. Tigh stood up but did not move to greet me or Leoben.

“If you don’t mind,” Tigh growled, “I would like to have a human only conversation.”

Leoben nodded before turning to me, “I will be just outside if you need me.”

“Thank you,” I whispered and watched as he went outside.

Tigh cleared his throat, “I wanted to say that I am sorry about what happened to you in the detention center. I am not sorry about tricking you into telling the Old Man. He needed to know that you were okay and I needed to know that I could trust you.”

“You should have told me,” I say quietly.

“I stand by my decision,” he said before passing me a microphone, “The connection is already up and ready for you…he’ll be here soon.”

Before I can say anything, he is already gone, and I am left to make the trek into the bunker on my own. It’s odd being down here alone in front of several monitors and computers and not be able to see Bill. The only thing that could possibly give away the fact that he is listening is the microphone and the distinct sound of static. I slowly approach the chair in front of all of the machines. I take a seat and a deep breath before bringing the microphone up to my mouth.

“Bill?” I gasp into the mic.

“It’s good to hear your voice, Laura,” he rasps back, “I was worried when I heard that you walked out earlier. I never wanted you to feel like you couldn’t trust me, and I certainly didn’t want you to tell me something like that with Saul pressuring you.”

“I didn’t want you to know,” I whisper.

“Why not, Laura?” he sounded shocked and offended, “I want to know that you are okay.”

“I know, Bill,” I am now fighting back tears, “but I didn’t want you to see me as weak or as some used-”

“Wait,” Bill said sternly, effectively cutting me off, “I could never see you as weak, Laura, and what happened to you was beyond your control. There is nothing in the universe that could make me love you less, but there is not a limit on the number of things that could make me love you more. Never doubt that I love you, Laura, because I do and I always will.”

“I’m sorry for hiding it from you, Bill,” I sobbed, “I love you too.”

“Please don’t cry,” he said softly, “I don’t like hearing you cry when I can’t be there to comfort you.”

“I don’t know how much longer I can do this,” I wipe away my tears and finally let the fatigue through in my voice, “I can’t act like I am not at all affected by what is going on while pretending that I know nothing about what is going on.”

“Tell me what is happening, Laura. I am right here for you,” I can almost see him leaning back against his couch patting the cushion next to him, “You don’t have to hold everything in. You don’t have to do this on your own.”

He was right, and I knew that if I continued to act one way in front of the cylons and another in front of Leoben, I was bound to slip at some point. 

I took a deep breath before starting my story, “Right after the cylons came back, I was taken to a cell and left there for a while. I was fed, but the room was blindingly bright and all I had was a mattress. It was fine because they mostly just left me alone, but when they started asking for information about Earth, I told them to frak off. They didn’t like that and that’s how I end up with Cavil and Leoben.

After that happened, Leoben came back and said that he only did what he did because the others pressured him to. He has been protecting me while I have been stuck in the cell, and he got me out of it today, but after everything that happened with Tigh...well, I can’t tell what he wants anymore. I messed up yesterday and now I don’t know what to do. He seems to be upset with me, and he was my only safe place with you gone.”

“What do you mean by ‘messed up’?” Bill asked gently.

“I was upset with you finding out, and I let my emotions get ahold of me,” I hesitated for a minute before deciding to just say it, “We ended up kissing, but I broke it off before it could go anywhere, I swear to the Lords of Kobol, Bill.”

“I trust you, Laura,” he sighed, “But I may have to shoot him myself when I get there.”

“I swear to you that he is nothing to me, Bill. I only trusted him because I wanted to be with you again,” I started to cry again.

“Laura, please don’t cry,” he begs again, “I will be there in two days and we will work everything out.”

“Two days?” I gasped, “You are going to be here in two days?”

I hear him chuckle and it makes me feel a warmth that I had been missing, “Yes, I will be there for you in two days. Saul and the Chief are going to make sure that you know the plan and that you will be safe and ready to leave.”

“I can’t wait to see you again, Bill,” I say as a smile spreads across my lips.

“Me neither, Laura,” I can hear the smile in his voice as well, “I don’t want you to tell anything to Leoben yet. Saul will tell you what to say to him.”

“You’re scared he might try to stop the rescue?” I ask, still not sure what to believe.

“I’m scared that he is going to stop you from leaving. Saul and Jack have told me how he acts around you, Laura, and I can’t lose you. I already had to deal with that thought once before, and it’s something that I never want to experience again.”

There was silence for a bit as we both thought about an almost loss. I know he was thinking about me lying in the hospital bed as I almost died of cancer. I am thinking about him lying on an operating table, with a long angry red incision splitting him in half. We have both lost so much, and yet we have so much more to lose. 

“I miss you, Bill,” I say quietly, “I miss you so much.”

“I miss you too, Laura,” I heard him shuffling on the other side of the line before I hear his voice again, “I have some time if you do.”

“I’m not going anywhere, Admiral Sir,” I giggle into the mic.

“Perfect,” he laughed, “because I believe that we have a book to finish, and I was hoping that we could finish another few chapters.”

“I can’t wait to be back on your couch on Galactica,” I hummed as I heard the sound of pages turning.

“Me neither,” he sighed before beginning to read the next chapter in our book. 

I could picture myself sitting on the couch, my head in his lap as he ran his fingers through my hair and soothed me with his voice. That’s when I realized that this was going to be the longest 2 days of my life.


	12. Chapter 12

Two Months, 1 Week and 1 Day

I can see the light starting to shine through the tent, and I am awake immediately. I rush to get out of my bed and throw together a bag of necessities to take to the public showers. I want to make sure that I get there before too many people are awake and decide that they need a shower as well. It is still dark enough outside that I am sure most people are still in bed, so I shouldn’t have to worry about running into anybody. 

As I exit my tent and look around me, I see Leoben standing off to the side. He agreed to let me be alone in my tent as long as he could be near-by, which means that I see him everywhere I go outside of my tent and the school tent. He approaches me as I continue on my way to the showers and smiles.

“You’re up early,” he laughs, “Got a special day planed?”

At first I swallow hard thinking that he knows about what is happening, but when I see the look in his eyes, I can see he is only joking.

“I just want to get a shower before too many people get the same idea,” I say, “I am still not comfortable showering with several people around me.”

“You should be proud of your body, Laura,” he placed his arm around my waist, “You are absolutely beautiful…Or is that why you are uncomfortable? You don’t want anybody staring or coming on to you?”

“Can we please not talk about this,” I groan and lightly shove him away.

He chuckles before pulling me back to him, “I’m just telling the truth. You are unbelievably gorgeous.”

I shake my head and keep walking towards the showers. Leoben stays outside the structure as he usually does, and I know it will help keep most people away. The first time I used the showers while under his care, he followed me into the stall and scared the hell out of me. I convinced him to wait outside the stall, but then rumors started to spread that I wasn’t particularly fond of. When I told him, he agreed to waiting outside of the building, but that was it.

I make my way to my usual stall in the far back corner and carefully arrange all of my things on the small shelf. I turn the water on and hope that it will warm up just a bit while I undress, but I know that is not going to happen anytime soon. The freezing cold water makes every hair on my body stand up and my teeth start to chatter. I am now awake however, and as I think about today, I can’t help but smile at the fact that Bill is going to be here soon. The Chief and Tigh had helped to ensure that Leoben thought Bill would strike in a week, but he is arriving today. I am supposed to go about my normal routine, and make sure that I am either in my tent or the school tent at all times. 

Tigh told me that I should get up early and shower so that I would be ready early. He also said that he wanted me to go to Doc Cottle under the guise of an upset stomach. I pull out the vial that Tyrol gave me two nights ago and quickly swallow its contents. By the time I am done washing up, I can feel the mystery liquid start to work. My stomach is turning over itself and I feel as if I am going to be sick.

I carefully dress and brush my hair before I slowly emerge from the building. Leoben smiles when he sees me, but once he takes the time to look at my pale face and my slow movement, he is instantly at my side. Before he can say anything, I feel the urge to be sick and I have to turn away from him as my stomach emptied itself. I felt him gather my hair and hold it out of the way as his other hand gently caressed my back. 

“Laura, are you okay?” his voice was full of concern.

“I’m fine,” I say back, hoping the plan will go smoothly, “My stomach is just really upset. It’s probably just a bug that I picked up from one of the kids.”

“Let’s get you to Dr. Cottle,” he said as he helped me up and started walking me towards the med tent.

I nod softly and let him support most of my weight as more nausea sweeps through my body. Whatever the hell was in the vial is killing me, and when I get a hold of Jack he is going to regret his little plan. 

I can feel Leoben looking at me and something was bothering him, so I stop and turn to him, “What’s bothering you, Leoben?”

“Laura,” he hesitated, “We know about the effects that the blood had on you…Is there any chance that since it restored a lot of your bodily functions that you may be…pregnant?”

“Pregnant?!” I yell and suddenly I am being sick again.

He soothes my back and lightly presses his lips to my temple, “You know…after Cavil and I…Could the sickness be caused by a pregnancy?”

“No!” I pull away and collapse on the ground.

“Laura, calm down, sweetheart,” he bent down and helped me to my feet.

“I’m not pregnant,” I say defiantly and try to stay on my feet. 

“I just wanted to rule out the possibility,” he said softly, “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

I nod and let out a breath of relief when I see the med tent in front of me. He guides me through the flap and onto one of the beds. He then disappears to find Jack, who is probably still asleep, and I lay back as my stomach continues to flip flop.

“What have you gotten yourself into this time, young lady?” Jack’s voice broke me from my thoughts.

“My stomach is upset and I’ve thrown up a couple of times,” I said as if he didn’t already know.

“I’ll give you something to calm your stomach while I run some basic tests,” he said before turning to Leoben, “This is going to take a while and I want to make sure that it is nothing serious like before. If you want I will escort her back to her tent later to make sure she is safe.”

Leoben seemed to be torn between leaving me alone and waiting for a while. He final came to a decision and nodded at Jack.

He turned to me, “I should be by your tent later today. If you aren’t back by then, I will come check on you here.”

He squeezed my hand and then quickly walked out of the med tent. I turned to Jack and took the vial that he was holding out for me to take.

“This one isn’t going to be worse, is it?” I say before gulping it down.

“It is going to taste like crap, but it will stop the nausea,” he said in his usual gruff voice.

“What the hell was in the first one?” I ask, already feeling my stomach settle.

“Just a berry that we found down here that makes you sick to your stomach. They look like strawberries, so you can imagine the number of people I had to treat,” he groaned as he sat down on the bed next to me.

“Thank you for helping me,” I smile at him.

“As much of a pain in my ass you have been, I will always be willing to help you or Bill,” he said softly, ‘speaking of which, we should get you back so that you can be ready for when he get here.”

I stand up, and instantly feel 100 times better than earlier. I turn to him and smile before heading out of the tent and going straight for my own. The sun is just now fully over the horizon and I can see that most of Bill’s men and women are already up and moving around the streets. I keep my head down and quickly reach my tent. I throw open the flap and seal it behind me only to come to a stop. 

“Somebody is in a hurry,” Bill’s voice catches me by surprise.

He is standing in the middle of my tent, dressed in an outfit similar to the one he wore on Kobol. He looked tired, but great and the smile on his face made me smile as well. I ran to him and jumped into his arms. He laughed and pulled me tight to him. I could finally hold the man that I loved in my arms after all of this time, and I couldn’t be happier.

“I didn’t know you were coming this early!” I practically squeak.

“We still have a few things that need to be put into place, and I can’t do anything until then,” he kissed the tip of my nose, “At east I can’t do anything to help them. You on the other hand…”

“I’m all yours, Admiral,” I tease as he pulls me closer and kisses me firmly on the mouth.

I forgot how good it felt to have his lips on mine while his arms held me to him and his hands wandered over my body. He was so warm, and I could swear that I was melting into him. He deepened the kiss and I let his tongue into my mouth as he picked me up off the ground. Walking us towards the bed, he took his time kissing me thoroughly before gently lowering us onto the mattress.

“Please don’t tell me you have class today,” he said as he began pushing up my sweater.

“Maya can take care of it,” I say breathlessly as he peppers kisses down my jawline and neck.

“Good,” he growled and threw off my sweater, “Cause your ass is not to leave this rack until I am completely done with you, Roslin.”

“Yes sir,” I giggle, but it quickly turns into a moan as his lips meet my chest, “Oh gods, Bill!”

I work the zipper on his jacket down and pull it off, exposing a chest that is covered by a tight shirt. I can see the outline of his biceps as he holds himself above me and continues to dip down to shower my bra covered breasts with kisses. His shirt has to go, and it seems like he has the same idea because he quickly sheds it and brings his bare chest down against my semi covered one. We both go for each other’s pants, and we can’t get them off quick enough.

“I love you, Laura,” he says as his hands trace my bare legs.

I pull him up my body so we are face to face, “I love you too, Bill.”

I kiss him hungrily and soon my bra is unhooked and thrown on top of the growing pile of clothes. He is caressing my breasts and lightly teasing my nipples, but it’s not enough. We haven’t seen each other in too long, and this is not enough. 

“Bill, please,” I beg and start to inch his underwear down as he does the same to me.

Soon we are both ready and Bill looks at me and holds my gaze as he slowly enters me. We both moan at the sensation we have been missing for more than two months. We start off slowly and just enjoy the feeling one being together again, except this time, we know how we feel about each other. There is nothing holding us back as we slowly build to release. 

“Yes, Bill!” I yell when he tips my head back and bites my neck.

“I guess you are feeling better now, Laura,” a voice calls from the entrance of my tent.

My eyes fly open and I know I screamed at Leoben’s unexpected appearance. Bill grabs the blanket around his waist and brings it higher to cover my upper body as he turns to Leoben.  
I can feel every muscle in his body tense as he tries to shield me from Leoben, and I know he is close to killing somebody or something at this moment.

“She is perfectly fine,” Bill growled, “Now I suggest you leave before I get a hold of you and make sure that you never come back to life.”

“She was sick earlier and I thought I would check on her, Admiral,” Leoben said, not leaving the tent, “I guess you could care less and just jumped straight into bed.”

Bill sits up and I have to work fast to make sure that the blanket stays firmly in place. This movement seems to catch Leoben’s eye because he looks at me and an angry sneer appears on his face.

“You don’t have to cover yourself up, Laura,” he scoffs, “It’s not like I haven’t seen it before.”

Bill quickly pulls on his boxers under the sheets before he springs up from the bed and throws Leoben to the ground. Bill begins throwing punch after punch at Leoben, but the cylon seems to enjoy it.

Bill notices his amusement and pulls him up by the collar of his shirt, “What is so fraking funny?”

“I’m just thinking how hard it is going to be to get everybody off of this planet when the other cylons find out you are here,” he laughs maniacally.

“Bill!” I yell from the bed and tightly wrap the blanket around my nude form, “He’s right. We aren’t going to be able to do anything if he tells them.”

Bill sits up and grabs his belt from the pile of discarded clothes before using it to secure Leoben’s hands behind his back. I watch as Leoben just smiles at him before turning his attention to me. 

“Laura,” Bill calls as he stands up and begins to get dressed, “Do you have anything to secure his mouth with? I need to make sure he isn’t going to be heard so that we can go find Saul.”

“Bill,” I say, still feeling uncomfortable with Leoben looking at me the way he is, “You know that won’t hold him, and as soon as he gets out, we are done.”

Leoben clears his throat while still looking at me, and Bill rolls his eyes before grabbing him and lifting him off the ground.

“What?” Bill said in a deathly calm voice.

“I’ll make you a deal,” Leoben smiled, “I promise to behave and not tell the rest of the cylons if you let Laura stay here to watch me while you do what you have to do.”

“Hell no!” Bill yelled before he threw him to the ground, “I’m not letting you near her.”

“I guess you are all stuck on this planet until we kill you all then,” he said nonchalantly.

I step up behind Bill and place a hand on his shoulder, “It’s fine, Bill. Go talk to Tigh and make sure everything is set.”

“Are you kidding me, Laura? I’m not going to leave you here with him,” he reached out to grab my hand, “Do you remember what I told you? I can’t stand the thought of losing you again.”

I step forward and grab his chin in my hand, “You are not going to lose me. That I know for a fact, because no matter what, you always save me. Now it’s time for you to go save everybody, Admiral.”

He kisses me suddenly, and I immediately forget that we are in front of Leoben. He pulls away just as quickly as he started, and I am brought back to reality. He smiled at me and then turned to Leoben.

“If you even breath in the wrong direction,” he said slowly, “I will make you wish you could die.”

“Of course, Admiral,” he winked, and I was sure that Bill was going to punch him into the ground. 

“Laura,” Bill called over his shoulder, “Please get dressed so that I can make sure he leaves you alone for the time being.”

I ran over to the pile of clothes and quickly threw everything on and made sure that I was completely covered before I turned around to see Bill blocking Leoben’s view of me. I walk up behind him and caressed his back. When he turned to look at me, I could see the concern in his eyes.

“I’ll be fine,” I say before kissing his cheek, “Go save the human race.”

He smiles at that and lightly brushes his hand across my arm, “I will be back as soon as I can,” he then reached for his holster and pulled out his gun, “If he gives you any trouble, shoot him.”

“Bill, you know I-” I try to say that I don’t like guns, but he cuts me off.

“I know,” he said sadly, “but I need to know that you will be safe, and this makes me feel a little less nervous.”

I look down at the weapon in my hands and then back to Bill, “Okay, but please hurry.”

“I will,” he kissed my forehead and whispered, “I love you.”

“I love you too,” I whisper back.

He glares at Leoben one last time in warning, and then leaves the tent to warn the others. We are going to have to get off of this planet sooner than we thought, and I have to wait here with a gun in my hand and a cylon as my hostage until Bill gets back.

“He is going to die, Laura,” Leoben says, “Unless you do something about it.”


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I think it’s time for them to leave New Caprica.

Two Months, 1 Week and 1 Day Continued

I can’t believe he just said that. Leoben is tied up, sitting on the floor of my tent, and he is threatening Bill and me. I’m the one holding a gun for frak sakes, and he thinks that he still has control. He is just smiling up at me as if he hadn’t just told me what would happen if I didn’t untie him. 

“What if I just shoot you?” I say, trying to hold the gun steady.

“That might buy you some time,” he chuckled, “but when I wake up, I will be able to tell every cylon on the base-ship that the Admiral is back, and you would never make it off this planet alive.”

I stared back at him and tried to think of another way out, “I don’t think you are in any position to negotiate anything.”

Suddenly, Leoben stood up and started walking towards me I quickly backed up, only to run into the table behind me, and as I turned to look at what I had knocked over, I felt two arms grab me.  
He had snapped the belt it looked like, and he was now holding my arms down and pulling the gun from my grasp. I kicked off of the table and ended up launching us both backwards. He still held tight, and rolled the both of us over so I was face down in the dirt with him on top of me. 

“You pick, Laura,” he whispered in my ear, “Either you come with me and I keep quiet, or I leave you here while I tell every cylon that Bill Adama is on New Caprica and attempting to free everyone.”

I struggle against him, trying to push off of the ground just a bit, but he is really heavy. I can hear him laughing in my ear as his hand comes up to strokes my hair. 

“Leoben, please!” I can taste dirt in my mouth and have to cough when it catches in the back of my throat.

“If you come with me,” he said gently, “I promise that I will help get everybody off of the planet.”

“Bill is already going to do that,” I cough.

“But if you don’t come with me,” he pulled my head back, “I will personally make sure the Admiral does not leave this planet alive.”

“Why are you doing this?” I gasp, feeling my hair being pulled again.

“Because I protected you, Laura,” he lets go of my hair and flips me around so I am lying on my back, “I made sure that you were not harmed too much, and I have made sure to keep you safe.”

“I know, and I am grateful for all of your help,” I slowly try to move my hand towards the gun that he left on the ground, “I know that I wouldn’t be here right now if it weren’t for you.”

“You need to stop, Laura,” he grabs my wrist and halts its progression towards the gun, “I don’t want to have to shoot you.”

I swallow hard when I realize that he is serious, “I’ll go w-with you,” I stutter, “But please promise me that everyone will be safe…including Bill.”

“People will die during this escape,” he kissed my forehead, “but I will make sure that the others are not aware of anything before it happens. I will also make sure that Adama lives.”

I feel a sense of relief flood my body, but it is quickly replaced with one of dread. If I am with Leoben, how am I going to escape? I will probably never see Bill again if I go with him, but if I don’t, I will never see him again and he will be dead.

I nod and look away as tears well up in my eyes, “Okay,” I say quietly.

He smiled and quickly stood up, offering me his hand to help me up, “I will just take you back to the detention center to check in with the others.”

My head snaps up at the mention of the detention center. We were planning on hitting it first, and then making our way out. It’s where most of the cylons can be found, and it would be easy to take them out with minimal casualties if people we down below in the cells. Leoben looks at my shocked reaction and pulls me towards him.

“I know pretty much the entire plan, Laura,” he brought his hand to rest on the back of my neck, “The only thing that caught me off guard was the Admiral coming so early. Once they start the attack, I will help them get everyone out of the cells,” he leaned down to kiss my nose, “I will help you to Colonial One and make sure that it is safe.”

“I thought-” I stopped myself when I realized I might give him an idea, but it seems as if he was thinking along the same lines.

“If I did not have to worry about what the other might do to you,” he said seriously, “You would not be allowed to leave, but I can’t trust them. I do not want Adama to have you, but I know that he will treat you better than Cavil or Doral.”

“Then why have me go with you right now?” I ask, trying to figure out what kind of game he was playing.

“I want the chance to say a proper goodbye,” he smiled down at me.

“Leoben,” I sigh, “I told you that I do not feel anything other than appreciation for you.”

“It doesn’t matter. You are going to be gone soon,” he tipped my head back and placed a kiss to my lips.

I pulled back and shook my head, “Thank you for helping.”

“You mean thank you for letting you go?” he chuckled sadly.

“Well-” I was interrupted by the tent flap opening and D’Anna stepping through.

“Cavil wants to talk to her,” she said before leaving the tent and disappearing.

I turn to Leoben and can see that he is worried, but he is trying to hide it.

“We need to get going,” Leoben grabs my upper arm and ushers me towards the door, “I have a feeling he is going to want to ask you about the rumors of escape, and if we are late, I won’t be able to protect you.”

I cannot think of anything to say, so I place my hand on his arm and gesture towards the exit. We are both relatively quite as he leads me through the streets and to the massive structure at the heart of New Caprica. He pulled me into his side as we got closer and held my hand gently as we passed several models of Cavil, Six, and D’Anna. They were all looking at me as if I was a piece of meat that they were about to tear into. 

“It’s nice of you two to join us,” Six sneered.

“We were a little busy,” Leoben said, never looking away from the corridor in front of us.

“We can tell,” D’Anna looked down at my clothes.

It was the first time that I noticed that all of the struggling against Leoben earlier had covered my clothes in dirt, and of course they would assume that we had been together. I feel him stiffen next to me before he spins around to look at the cylons we had just passed.

“Actually,” he smiled with false pleasantries, “Laura got sick this morning and I had to rush her to the doctor. After that, she was taken back to her tent to rest.”

Both the D’Anna and the Six that had jeered at us went silent and exchanged looks before they pointed towards a cell for us to go into. Leoben waited for them to leave before he took us into the cell and offered me the single chair that was in the room. I took it and placed a calming hand on his shoulder, encouraging him to stop pacing.

He did not stop however until the door opened and Cavil came through. Leoben turned to face Cavil and they both kept quiet, probably waiting for the other to talk first.

“I would like to talk to Laura alone,” Cavil looked right at me and simply waited for Leoben to leave.

“I had plans with her for today,” Leoben says, trying not to let the panic show on his face.

I look straight at Cavil and wait for him to make his next move. The way I see it, he is either going to force Leoben out of here or just start attacking me with Leoben still in the cell. It seems the former is correct because he turns to Leoben and tells him to close the cell door. The amount of relief that floods through my body at Leoben’s presence is one that can only be matched by the feeling of being in Bill’s arms again.

“Leoben,” Cavil called over his shoulder, still looking at me, “I would like to apologize.”

The tone of his voice instantly puts my nerves on edge. There was something off about the way he was carrying himself, and I could feel in my gut that he was up to something. I looked at Leoben and he was just as on edge. Something was going to happen, but neither of us knew what.

“What are you apologizing for?” Leoben asked as he stepped in front of Cavil.

“For this,” Cavil suddenly thrust forward and I heard Leoben gasp before he slumped forward.

I jumped up and ran towards Leoben, who was now sprawled out on the floor, blood pouring from his stomach. I sank down to my knees next to him and placed my hands over the wounds, trying to stop the bleeding, but there was too much blood. My hands were covered in a matter of seconds in the brick red liquid, and Leoben was gasping desperately for breath. I looked at him as he held his hand out to me, and I instantly took his cold hand in mine. I am surprised to feel tears burning in my eyes at the sight in front of me, but I realized that he was the closest thing to comfort that I had had in a while.

“Don’t worry,” Cavil sneered down at me, still holding the knife in his hand, “He’ll wake up soon.”

I look down at Leoben to see his eyes close and his chest stop moving. His hand goes limp and I gently place it on his stomach. I steel my gaze and glare up at Cavil, who is twirling the knife in his hands. 

“Why did you do that?” I ground out.

“Because he was protecting you,” he bent down to meet me eye to eye, “And I was getting tired of being shoved aside.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lie, “He just had some kind of strange fixation with me.”

Cavil chuckled and suddenly reached out to grab me by the neck, “I know that he took you to see Colonel Tigh and Chief Tyrol as soon as he took you from here. I don’t know what happened there for sure, but I do know that you are planning something. And although I don’t know what Leoben did to help you, I do know that he is involved.”

I fight against his hold on my neck and try to break free, but with each word he speaks, I can feel his hand tightening. Each time I try to breathe in, I feel nothing but a burning sensation in my lungs. He lifts me up into the air and walks me backwards into a wall, my toes barely scrapping the floor. I can vaguely hear the sound of something exploding as Cavil turns to look at the door.

“What is happening?” he yells at me, slamming me against the wall.

The back of my head is pounding and I know that the spots in my vision are a bad sign. I probably have a concussion, and the lack of oxygen in my body isn’t helping any. I try to focus on the sounds of more explosions coming from above, but each passing second makes it harder and harder to stay away from the darkness that is waiting for me. Cavil pulls me away from the wall and drops me to the ground before delivering blow after sickening blow to my abdomen.

“You obviously know what is going on!” He screams as he continued to swing his foot into me, “Why won’t you just tell me what it is that you are hiding? You can’t last forever, Laura!”

I am no longer able to hold in the screams of pain that are being ripped from my body, and that only seems to aggravate Cavil more. He grabs me by the hair and pulls me to my knees, only to slap me across the face and send me flying across the floor. The explosions and gun shots are getting closer now, and I have to remind myself to hold on for as long as I can. The land of the unconscious is creeping up on me, and if Cavil doesn’t let up, I will not stay awake long enough. 

Cavil steps on my back, keeping me pinned to the ground and hindering my already labored breathing, “I am going to let you in on a little secret, Laura. I am not going to waste my time asking you questions. I am simply going to beat and torture the answers out of you until you are screaming your deepest and darkest secrets to me.”

I push off the ground, but his foot doesn’t budge, and he presses me harder into the ground. He then lets up only to kick me enough to flip me onto my back. He grabs at my neck again, and I am met with the same spots as before, but these came more quickly. He walks over to the long forgotten chair, still holding me in the air, and sits down, which brings me to rest in front of him. His grip tightens and I watch as madness takes over his expression, and I know that this will be my last moments alive. 

We both hear an explosion right outside the door before it is thrust open and a flashlight is scanning the area. Cavil turns me so I am sitting in his lap, with his hand still around my neck. I realize that he is hoping to use me as a shield and I want to scream at him that he can’t die, but I can’t. The dust that had blown into the room when the door was forced open settled enough for the person holding the flashlight to focus it on us. Whoever this was could see us, but due to the fraking spotlight in the cell, we couldn’t see anything. 

“Drop whatever weapons you have,” Cavil’s voice was harsh in my ear, “Or I will snap her neck.”

As if to emphasize the point, he squeezed my neck and pulled me tighter to him. I watched as the flashlight was turned off and something was thrown to the floor, probably a gun, and the person took a few steps forward. As he stepped forward into the spotlight, his outline was unmistakable. Bill Adama is standing in the cell, and he came back to rescue me. I wish I could run to him right now, but since I can’t I settle for just trying to make eye contact with him as he continues to walk further into the cell.

“Ah, Admiral,” Cavil sneered, “I should have known you would come back for her.” 

“Let her go,” his booming voice cut through the haze that was taking over my mind, “It’s over. Most of the cylons have been wiped out and those that are left are fleeing.”

“Then I guess I should make sure that I don’t die,” Cavil sounded scared.

I can see Bill slowly moving to the side, and I am not quite sure why, but I trust him implicitly. He knows what he is doing, and he will get me out of this. He keeps his eyes on me as he continues to try to talk Cavil into letting me go. I know that is never going to happen, and I am sure Bill knows that too, so there has to be some kind of plan, right? 

“I promise you,” Bill growled, “If you harm her in any way, you will die.”

“Take a good look at her, you idiot!” Cavil scoffed, “It’s a little late for that. In fact, you are a couple months too late. You already missed a marvelous show when Madame President here showed Leoben and me just how flexible she is.”

I watched as Bill’s eyes flashed with anger and his jaw tightened. If he were wearing only his tanks, I would also be able to watch as every muscle in his arms contracted as he prepared to fight. Bill was ready to pounce, but something was holding him back. 

“Laura,” Bill called out to me, “I want you to look directly at me, okay? No matter what you hear or feel, you do not look away from me, understood?”

I try to speak, but with Cavil’s fingers wrapped around my throat, it’s nearly impossible, so I give a small nod to him. His crystal blue eyes have me blocking out everything in the room except him. As I look at him now, I can see that he has grown even more tired and he has acquired a few more grey hairs. I didn’t have time to really look at him back in my tent, but now it feels like I have all the time in the world. I guess being this close to death with do that to you. 

“Stop with the tricks, Admiral,” Cavil barks, “Are you going to let me leave, or am I going to have to kill our little Laura?” 

Bill’s gaze hardens, but he doesn’t take his eyes off of mine, “You are going to leave, but this body won’t be following you. Now Lee!”

I keep my promise to Bill and do not look away from him as I hear a shot ring out from the direction of the doorway, which by now is a little to my right. I feel a rush of air at the back of my head before Cavil’s hand goes slack as does the rest of him. Bill is the first to move as he rushes towards me, but I am not far behind as I launch myself at him. He picks me up off the ground as his arms encircle my waist. 

“Are you okay?” he asks quietly.

“I am now,” I cry into his shoulder as the tears come full force, “Take me home, Bill.”

“Of course,” he sets me down gently on the ground before grabbing my hand and leading me out of the cell and towards the exit of the detention center. 

By the time we get to Colonial One, most of the other ships are gone and so are most of the people. Bill and Lee go ahead of me to clear the ship before they help me aboard and Bill talks to the Captain about getting us airborne. I turn to Lee, who is standing just to the left of Baltar’s desk, and I have the overwhelming urge to hug him, so I do. He instantly returns the embrace and I release a sigh of relief.

“Thank you, Apollo,” I breathe out.

“Any time, Madame President,” he chuckles.

I pull back and smile up at him before retreating to behind the desk to take a seat. We are in the air in a matter of minutes and we are soon jumping to join the rest of the fleet. Bill soon joined me in the office, and we just sat next to each other on the couch. He held me while we both let the exhaustion of the past couple months roll off of us. We were home and we would work through this, no matter what we had to face, and there sure was a lot to face now, but it could all wait until we made it to Galactica.


	14. Chapter 14

Two Months, 1 Week and 2 Days

By the time we got back to Galactica and got settled in with the ever present press, everybody was exhausted. Bill had asked me to stay on board so that we could talk about everything in his quarters later, but between getting head counts and dealing with all of the formalities with Zarek, I haven’t set foot in Bill’s quarters since last night. So, looking at the hatch that would lead to the familiar space, I couldn’t help letting out a sigh of relief. 

After my talk with the soon to be Vice President, I knew that I had to savor these moments of peace before I was back to being the President. It is going to be hard trying to juggle the fleet and down time, but now that I have Bill in my life I will make time for him. As much as I would like to just forget my duties as President and just be Laura with Bill, I know that I am going to fight to make sure that New Caprica and Gaius Baltar never happen again. The two guards outside the hatch greet me and open the hatch after knocking and I offer a quick, “Thank you” to each of them.

Bill is sitting behind his desk as I walk in and I offer him a small smile, “I have to say,” I chuckle, “I really missed your quarters.”

He nodded before standing up and walking towards the couch, “It definitely wasn’t the same without your heals by the coffee table.”

“I guess I will have to fix that,” I say as I take off the objects in question and place them by the table before sitting next to him. 

He puts his arm around me and pulls me into his side and I place my head on his chest, “I also missed this,” I say softly.

We sat there in compatible silence for a while, just listening to the familiar sounds of Galactica and the gentle hum of the lights above us. I can feel myself drifting as my eyelids become heavier and heavier. I focus on the fact that I can feel and hear his heartbeat beneath my head and that he is here and alive. I had convinced myself that I may never see him again, and yet here I am in his arms, on his couch, in his quarters, on his ship. It is an amazing feeling that is overwhelming, and I am so tired that I just let the tears fall. 

Bill pulls me onto his lap and cradles my head against his chest as he whispers into my ear, “You’re safe…It’s okay, Laura. You’re home.”

Home. Something I have been thinking about a lot lately, and I just now realized that I made it. 

“For a while there,” I sob, “I didn’t think I was going to make it back.”

“That was never an option, Laura,” he says gently.

I look up at him and shake my head, “It was in my head. I kept thinking that if I wasn’t alive, they wouldn’t be able to get any information and I wouldn’t have to deal with the pain anymore.”

I could see the regret and the pain in his eyes as he turned away to hide the few tears that I knew were escaping. He was blaming himself for what happened to all of us, but especially to me. I gently placed my hand under his chin and made him look at me. 

“The only thing that kept me from giving up was you, Bill,” I say strongly, “You are the reason that I am still alive…that all of us are still alive. Don’t you dare blame yourself for any of this, Bill Adama.”

“I left everyone behind!” he suddenly exploded, jumping up off the couch and walking to the center of the room, “I am the reason that you and Saul were tortured and beat! If I had stayed Saul wouldn’t have killed Ellen and you wouldn’t have been subjected to whatever the cylons did to you!”

“You also would have died!” I yell back, fed up with his attitude , “You would have been blown out of the sky and we would have been frakked either way!”

We both stay there, staring at each other. By this point I am breathing heavily and I am not sure if I want to kiss him or slap some sense into him. He seems to understand what I said to him because he loses some of the fire in his gaze and decides to rejoin me on the couch. He takes my hand in his and just squeezes it. Neither of us knows what to say. He blames himself, and I blame myself. Both of us trying to make sense of what happened by taking on the blame of something that was out of our control.

“We could just agree to blame Baltar and try to move on from there,” he jokes.

“I already blame him,” I say quietly and look down at our hands.

“He just wanted to settle, Laura,” Bill pulled me closer, “A lot of people wanted to be able to feel land beneath their feet again, and that made them jump at an opportunity that they knew nothing about.”

“I’m not talking about the settling, Bill,” I whisper.

“Then what are you talking about?” he said cautiously.

“He told them about me,” I growl, “He talked to them about the fact that I was ‘irresistible’ when I was mad. He told them about us, and they made comments about you not coming back. Baltar wanted me to agree to speak to everyone and tell them to cooperate. He wanted me to just throw away their lives, Bill. He didn’t give a frak about what happened to everybody except himself. He didn’t just make us settle, he made sure that it was a living hell once we were there.”

He pulled me onto his lap and began to rock me slowly back and forth. 

“I’m so sorry I didn’t do more to protect you,” he whispers.

“It wasn’t your fault, Bill,” I practically yell.

“But it wasn’t yours either.”

I look at him and nod before laying my head against his chest. It wasn’t our fault that any of this happened. All the blame rests solely on the shoulders of one Gaius Baltar, and I know that if I focus on that, I won’t blame myself as much anymore. 

“Are you okay?” he asks after a while.

“I will be,” I say, “but right now I am really tired.”

“I can fix that,” he chuckles and gently lifts me into his arms before standing up, “I believe you will find my rack to be just a little more comfortable than the couch.”

He carefully carried me through the living area into his bedroom and placed me on the bed. He then covered me with a blanket and placed a kiss on my forehead before he began undressing until he was left in his tanks and boxers. He then crawled over me to lay between me and the wall behind us, and brought his arm around my waist to pull me against his chest. I hum as his warmth and smell invade my every cell and I suddenly realize that I am no longer tired. 

I turn around to face him, “I’ve changed my mind.”

“About what?” he smiles down at me and kisses my nose lightly.

“About wanting to sleep,” I gently catch his bottom lip with my teeth, “I believe it’s about time we finish what we started a few days ago.”

He groans and rolled on top of me, “I think you are right.”

I laugh as he smiles down at me and starts placing light kisses all along my neck and jaw. I instantly reached for his tanks, but he stops me and pins my hands above my head. 

“You’ll get your turn in a while,” he growls into my ear, “but right now, I want you to just let me love you.”

I can only nod as he continues to work his mouth over the hallow of my neck. His hands move down to the hem of my shirt and soon he is pulling it up and over my head. He didn’t waste much time before my bra was gone and he was suckling lightly on my breasts, drawing moans and noises from my throat that I didn’t even know I could make. He was sending electrical pulses through my body with each touch, but it wasn’t nearly enough. I could feel myself becoming wet with each touch of him mouth, and I tried to grind against him, but he simply held me down and continued to feast on my breasts. 

“Bill, please hurry up,” I beg and hear him chuckle against my chest.

He sits up and kisses me hard as his hands begin to work on freeing me of my pants and underwear. Soon I am completely naked beneath him and he is working his way down my body to start working on my center. His tongue and fingers were working hard at bringing me to my release, and soon I am bucking and writhing beneath his mouth. He slows down and I look down at him ready to scream at him for stopping, but before I can say anything he is stripping out of his clothes. 

“It’s about time,” I laugh.

Instead of replying, he is on top of me again and slowly entering me. I throw my head back and gasp as he groans and kisses the corner of my mouth. 

“I love you, Laura,” he says in my ear as he begins to slowly thrust.

I kiss his lips softly, “I love you too, Bill.”

We try to take our time but soon we are both lost in the feeling of each other, and we are both close to release. 

Bill stops only to roll onto his back so I’m on top, “I always liked this view,” he smiles.

I smile back and lean down to take my turn at kissing his neck and jaw. By the time I move on to his lips, he is trying to get me to move my hips again. 

“But I thought it was my turn to have some fun?” I pout as he grabs my hips.

“I thought this was fun,” he thrusts up into me and I practically collapse on top of him from the force of it.

He continues to thrust into me and I loop my arms around his neck, trying to use what little leverage I have to match his rhythm. 

“Oh gods, Bill!” I scream as he hits just the right spot over and over again.

“Yes, Laura!” I heard him groan as I feel his hands tighten around my hips.

I tighten my arms around him and run my nails through the hair at the nape of his neck. I can feel my release about to break and by the way Bill has sped up, I know he will not last long either. He gives a couple more thrusts and I am done for. I feel my whole body explode at the familiar feeling as Bill follows. This time I do collapse on top of him and start to catch my breath. Bill’s heart is racing under my head, we are both sweaty and exhausted, but I couldn’t be happier. As we begin to drift off to sleep, I feel him begin to run his hands up and down my back before he pulls the previously discarded blanket over us. 

“Laura?” he says as he pulls me into his arms.

“Hmmm?” I hum back as I settle into his arms.

“There’s something I’ve been wanting to talk to you about.”

I pull away from him enough to be able to see his eyes, “Okay.”

“A little while after the ground breaking, I wanted to ask you something,” he leaned over me to reach into the drawer of the nightstand by the bed, “I had some of Tyrol’s men make something out of some minerals and things I gave them. I was only waiting for the right time to ask you, but before I could, everything went to hell. When I saw you again, all I could think about was not asking you sooner.”

I was thoroughly confused by this point and I still couldn’t see what he had grabbed out of the nightstand.

“I know that soon we are both going to be busy with our own responsibilities, but I don’t want what we have to end because of them. Only being able to hear you over the comm and having to get reports from Saul and Cottle about the injuries you were treated for, is not something I want to go through again. I love you, Laura, and I want to be able to show you that no matter where we are or who is around.”

I look down at his hand a see that he is holding a small metal box in his hands. When he pulls back the lid, my breath catches in my throat. A simple gold band with a single diamond and two red jewels was sitting in the box. 

“Bill…” I gasp and start to cry as it finally registers in my mind what is going on.

“I know it’s not much, and I have no clue what kind of jewels these are, but Laura Roslin,” he took the ring out of the box and looked straight at me, “Will you marry me?”

I sit up just enough to kiss his lips softly, “Yes,” I say before kissing him again.

He takes my hand and places the ring on my finger before kissing my hand and smiling down at me.

I look down at the ring and can’t believe he was able to have one made, “I love this ring, Bill.”

“Are you sure?” he says as he takes my hand and looks at the ring.

“It’s more than I could have ever asked for,” I place my hand on his cheek, “It is beautiful, Bill. Where did you ever find the gold to make this?”

“I decided to make a few changes,” he said and he showed me his left hand.

As I look at his hand I realize that his old wedding ring is gone and all that is left is a patch of slightly lighter skin. I look at him with shock evident on my face, and all he can do is chuckle.

“But that was y-your ring,” I stutter, “I thought-”

“Now, it’s ours,” he smiled before pointing to the nightstand, “There is another box in there that looks like this one.”

I quickly throw open the drawer and dig through it until my hand finds the box he mentioned. I pull is out and open it up and see two more gold rings, one slightly larger than the other.

“I had them make your engagement ring out of pure gold and use what was left and a mixture of a couple other metals to make these two wedding bands. I also asked them to add something to them,” he pointed down at the box.

I smiled down at the simple bands and took them out to get a closer look. On the inside of each one was an engraving, but without my glasses, I can’t really read them.

“What do you think?” he says gently.

“If I had my glasses I could tell you,” I laugh and he just shakes his head.

“The engraving on yours says ‘Sine Qua Non’ and mine says ‘Without Which Not.’ I figured it would be a good engraving for us,” he says softly.

“I love it,” I smile through my tears. 

“I’m glad,” he kisses me again before putting the rings back on the nightstand, “I think we should maybe get some sleep, or else you are going to be really irritable tomorrow while dealing with everything.”

I smack his chest at his remark but he only chuckles and turns of the lamp before pulling me flat against his chest. I rest my hand on his chest and my head on his shoulder and I am out in minutes. We both slept soundly and when morning came we were both refreshed and ready to start the day. Bill was up before I was and made breakfast for the both of us, which he brought to bed for us to eat.

“How are you this morning?” he smiled at he slowly started to pull the sheet away from my naked body.

I rolled my eyes and swatted his hand away, “Actually, I don’t think I’ve slept that well in a while.”

“I’m happy to help,” he cleared the plate away and spun around to quickly pick me up, sheet and all.

“Bill! What are you doing?” I giggled as he headed in the direction of the bathroom.

“I am going to make sure that my beautiful fiancé is clean, refreshed and ready to start the day,” he said simply as he turned on the shower.

I was now giggling like a fool, “What about this sheet?” I gestured to my attire for the morning.

He just shrugged and walked into the shower, “It needed to be washed anyway.”

“And your boxers, too?” I shriek as the water cascades down around us.

“Yep,” he smiled and let me go so that he could unwrap me from the now soaking sheet.

“I love you, Bill Adama,” I laugh.

“And I love you, Laura Roslin,” he grabbed me around the waist and began tickling my sides.

I try to get away but soon I am begging for mercy and he is just holding me as we stared at each other.

“You were wrong,” I say softly.

“About what?” he looks down at me as the water continues to pour down on us.

“It should be, ‘And I love you, Laura Adama’,” I smile up at him and before I know it he is kissing me deeply and we are making love in the shower. I am really going to love being Mrs. Laura Adama.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It is going to be pretty AU from now on, but I hope you guys still like it.

Three Months, 2 Week and 2 Days

I can’t believe I slipped up! I have been able to hide this for over a month, and yet I let it slip on the one day that I really couldn’t afford to let it out. Bill and I had agreed that we would get married soon and wait until things settled down to announce that we had gotten together in secret. I had been careful to make sure that I only wore my ring in private and that I wasn’t seen leaving Bill’s, well our, quarters in the mornings. 

Now I am bent over the toilet in the bathroom on Colonial One, trying hard not to lose my lunch. My stomach has already been on edge, and with the added pressure of my screw up, I can feel everything starting to come up. I can hear a faint knocking on the door and I know that it is either Tory or Bill, but I don’t want to face either of them. Tory will probably give me some speech about ruining my chances of winning over the public again, and Bill is probably going to try to comfort me and tell me that everything is fine when it’s not. 

Nothing is fine at all. I screwed it all up. 

15 minutes ago…

I am anxiously waiting for Zarek to finish up his speech so that I can take the podium and address the people as their President again. He is dragging it out and I know that he is savoring his last few moments in power, but I can’t be bothered with it. Bill is at the back of the room waiting for me to finish so that we can go back to our quarters to have a quiet dinner, and Zarek won’t shut up. I have been up to my neck in paperwork this past week since I started taking on more and more of my former duties and in addition to all of that, I think I caught a bug because my stomach has been off for a while.

I hear Zarek introduce me, and I stand up and shake his hand with my left hand and smile to the press in front of me, “Thank you,” I say as I take the stand. 

I watch as they all stare at me before there is a sudden burst of action. Every reporter is on their feet shouting at me as they try to get closer to the podium. My security team is barely holding them back and I can see Bill pushing his way through the crowd to get to me. I put up my hands in an attempt to calm everyone down, but it is no use. 

“Shut up!” I hear Tory yell from the corner, and suddenly everyone is quiet. 

I make sure to shoot a glare in her direction before I turn back to the press, “Now that I have your attention, one at a time please.”

A reporter in the center isle raises his hand and I gesture for him to ask his question, “When did you get engaged Madame President? And who are you engaged to?”

I feel my heart rate skyrocket and my stomach drop. How could they possibly know? 

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” I say, deciding to play dumb.

“The ring on your finger,” the reporter presses on, “who gave it to you and when, Madame President?”

“I-um…” I look frantically around the room and see Bill gesture down at my left hand.

Looking down I see the diamond and two red jewels staring back at me. I can’t believe I forgot to take it off! I look up and see the flashes of cameras and the microphones getting closer to me as the reporters start yelling again. They are screaming questions and demanding answers, but all I can hear is a shrill ringing in my ears. One of the men on my security team grabs my shoulder to pull me back and I flinch. I realize that I let out a scream and everyone is watching me. Suddenly I am back in the cell with the cylons asking me question after question as they beat me to a pulp. 

My breathing is shallow and I feel as though the walls of Colonial One are closing in on me. I try to find Bill’s eyes in the sea of people, but it’s useless. I quickly turn on my heels and head towards the back and into my office. My stomach picks this moment to want to rid itself of its contents and I have to rush to the bathroom.

I have been in here for a while now, and the sick feeling still isn’t going away. The knocking on the door has stopped, and then next thing I hear is Bill’s voice calling to me.

“Laura,” he says softly, “Laura, please open the door for me.”

I lift my head up from the toilet seat and crawl over to the door to unlock it. He waits for me to back up before he opens the door and joins me in the small bathroom, making sure to close and lock the door behind him. He grabs a towel from the rack and runs it under some water before sitting down on the floor with me. He places the damp towel across the back of my neck and pulls me to him. 

“I can’t believe I forgot to take off the ring,” I say as my head spins.

“You’ve been under a lot of pressure and stress lately,” Bill says calmly, “Plus, you haven’t been feeling the best.”

“I know,” I pull away from him and begin to dry heave over the toilet. 

I feel his cool hand remove the towel and run along my neck before moving to my forehead, “Laura, you’re burning up,” he placed the towel back on my neck.

“I’m fine,” I say as I try to stand up only to feel like I am going to be sick again. 

“I’ll get Tory to call Cottle as soon as she settles everything with the press,” he offers lightly.

“Bill, please don’t,” I beg, “You know I don’t like sick bay ever since the whole cancer thing. I can handle the press if you just help me up.”

I can tell that he was about to say no, so I pull him close and nuzzle his neck, making sure to rub his chest as well. It always works when we are in his quarters when I am too lazy to get up to get something, and this time is no different. I hear him sigh and kiss the top of my head.

“Fine,” he breaths out, “But if it goes on longer than ten minutes, I am picking you up and dragging you out of there. You really need to rest with this fever.”

I nod gently, trying not to aggravate the pain in my head, “Deal,” I hum as he tightens his arm around me slightly, “Thank you, Bill.”

Instead of answering, he kisses my nose lightly before slowly helping me to stand up. I still feel the urge to be sick, but the dizziness has lessened and I’m not shaking as much. He unlocks the bathroom door and checks to see that nobody is in my quarters. I can see one of my guards looking our way, motioning us to come out, and once we do, Bill takes my hand and leads me towards the other room. 

Before we can make it to the curtain, he stops and turns to face me, “I know that you don’t like sick bay, but please promise me that you will let Cottle check you over in my quarters.”

“I can do that,” I smile at him, happy that he is letting me stay in our quarters instead of Cottle’s domain. 

“But,” he stops me before I can turn back to the curtain, “If it gets too bad, I will be dragging your perfectly shaped ass into that bay.”

“Why, Admiral,” I giggle, “I never knew you had such an infatuation with my ass.”

He leaned down, “I have an infatuation with all of you. Your ass is just the subject of my thoughts right now.”

“And why would that be?” I smile up at him, stepping a little closer to him.

“It just so happens that you are wearing my favorite pair of pants,” he practically growls, “They make your legs look like the go on for days, and your ass looks as if it’s worthy of its own temple.”

I laugh as he circles my waist with his arms and his hands land squarely on his favorite asset, “I thought you weren’t religious?”

“I am when it comes to you,” he grins.

I lay my head on his chest, “I love you, Bill.”

“I love you too, Laura,” he tilts my head up and leans in to kiss me but I stop him.

“I’ve got a fever,” I pull away, “I’m contagious and I really don’t want you to catch whatever I have.”

“Laura,” he chuckles, “You have been sick for about a week now, I can think of quite a few things that we have done in that time that would have made me catch what you have.”

I can feel myself blush as I remember our activities two nights ago. We definitely shared more than a few kisses and were a lot closer than we are now. 

“So I would like a kiss from my gorgeous fiancé,” he leaned down and this time I let him kiss me, and I let a small moan escape me.

We pulled away after a while, and I felt a bit lightheaded, but not more than usual.

Bill caught me as I started to sway, “Are you alright?” the concern evident in his voice.

“What can I say?” I laugh lightly, “You take my breath away.”

He looked down at me without a hint of levity in his gaze, “Laura, I’m serious.”

“Bill, I’m fine.” I kiss him lightly again before heading back out the curtain and facing the press in front of me.

They seemed to have calmed down and by the look Tory is giving them, I can only guess what she had to do to get them to shut up. I notice that one of the reporters already has his hand up, and I nod in his direction as I feel the sick feeling coming back. 

“Madame President,” he stood up quickly, “Can you tell us when you got engaged and who you are engaged to?”

“Considering the fact that it has nothing to do with policies of the fleet,” the dizziness is coming back, “I do not believe,” the swaying is becoming harder for me to conceal, “that I need to answer those questions,” and the nausea is also coming back tenfold.

Another few reporters stand up and start protesting, “Madame President! Don’t you think we have a right to know about things that could possibly affect your decisions?”

“Why would my engagement,” I feel bile rising, “affect my standing on policies?”

“So you admit that it is an engagement ring?” another reporter yells.

I look over to Tory and realize I just made another mistake. I could have brushed it off as a ring that I was wearing after New Caprica or make up some bullshit story that Tory could help me with, but now it was too late. They had gone fishing and I just swallowed the hook. My knees are really weak now and I try to focus on the press, but my vision is blurry. As I feel myself collapsing, I feel Bill’s arms catching me and laying me gently on the ground. 

“Trash can,” I can barely get out, but Bill seems to understand and he instantly reaches for a nearby wastebasket for me.

I am soon emptying my stomach again in front of the entire press, and I can hear the snap and click of cameras going off. After I finish vomiting, I feel every last bit of strength leave my body and I fall back into Bill’s chest. I feel him pick me up and I can hear Tory on the comm calling for a raptor and Cottle. 

“Make a hole!” Bill yells as he rushes me through the room and into a darker and quieter space, which I realize is the hangar deck of Colonial One. 

I reach out to touch Bill’s arm, but my hand feels limp, “Bill,” I rasp.

“Shh,” he soothes, “We are going to take my raptor back to Galactica and Cottle is going to take a look at you.”

“I didn’t think it would get this bad,” I whisper.

“I know,” he climbs into the raptor and tells the pilot to go, “I told you I would drag your ass down to sick bay.”

“No,” I say weakly, “You said you would drag my ‘perfectly shaped ass’ down there.”

He shakes his head laughing, “You always have to be exact, don’t you?”

“I guess it’s the teacher in me,” I smile. 

By the time we got to Galactica, Cottle was already there and waiting for us to get off the raptor. He had a gurney ready, and was fussing with the crowd that was forming around us.

“What exactly have you gotten yourself into this time, young lady?” he says as he pulls a cigarette from his coat pocket.

“She’s been vomiting for a while and feeling dizzy and weak,” Bill offered as he helped me onto the gurney, “Today she has a really bad fever.”

“She just visited one of the civilian ships right?” Cottle asked as he began checking my pulse.

I nod and watch as Bill helps him get the blood pressure cuff around my arm.

“I’ve had a couple cases of the flu from the civilian ships,” he said, “I think that might be what is wrong, but I want to run some blood and urine tests to make sure that it isn’t something more serious given her history.” 

I watch as fear flashes across Bill’s face, and I reach for his hand, “It’s not cancer, Bill.”

He smiles and nods before taking my hand in his, “We have to be sure, Laura.”

I close my eyes and listen as Bill starts to panic and Cottle yells at him, “You said she has been getting sick, right?! She isn’t dying, Bill. She is probably exhausted and just needs to rest.”

The last thing I hear before I nod off is Bill telling me to rest and wake up when I felt better. I don’t remember whatever I was dreaming about, but when I wake up, I realize that I was only out for a few minutes because I am still on the gurney and they are transferring me to a bed. I lay still as I hear Cottle telling his people what to do in his gruff voice, and I feel Bill’s hand in mine.

“You are sure that it isn’t cancer?” I hear Bill ask suddenly.

“Unless she has a rare form of cancer that presents itself like the flu with fever and all,” Cottle said sarcastically, “I can safely say that your fiancé simply contracted the flu and didn’t take care of herself properly.”

“You’re sure?” Bill asked again with all seriousness.

I hear him sigh, “Bill, I know you are scared that she is sick, but I am telling you now that I do not believe this is cancer or anything more serious than the flu. It looks like she let it progress and may be suffering from dehydration and exhaustion.”

Bill squeezes my hand and I squeeze back, “I’m fine, Bill.” 

Both of them look down at me, and Cottle shakes his head, “You know, as much as you hate this place, you really don’t take many precautions to stay away.”

“I thought it would just go away,” I say weakly.

“Did you make sure that you were drinking enough fluids and eating enough to keep you going?” he asked, already knowing the answer was ‘no.’

I keep my mouth shut and just shake my head, and both Bill and Cottle roll their eyes at me. 

“Well,” the doctor took another puff of his cigarette, “Since you decided to show everyone just how stupid you can be when it comes to taking care of yourself, I need to run a blood and urine test.”

“Do you have to?” I say, trying to hide the whining from my voice as I think of the needles and vials involved.

“Yes,” Cottle said simply before walking out to get everything he needed and was back before I could escape.

“Here is your cup,” he said handing it to me, “I will be back soon to draw your blood.”

I look over at Bill and groan, “Remind me never to get sick again.”

He chuckles before placing a kiss to my forehead, “I will try.”

Cottle came back a few minutes later and got everything he needed before telling me that I have to stay overnight. I am sure everybody in the entire infirmary could hear me demanding to be released, but Cottle just ignored me and threatened to sedate me. Bill had to assure him that it would be fine and crawled into the bed with me.

“I wish we were in our quarters right now,” I say quietly into his chest.

“I know,” he says, placing kisses along my hairline, “But I would much rather you be okay.”

I am about to agree with him when the curtain is pulled back and Tory and one of my men enter the little enclosure. Bill goes to move out of the bed, but Tory motions him to stop.

“All of us already know about the two of you,” she said, “Which hasn’t been a problem until now.”

“What do you mean?” I ask, slowly sitting up.

“It seems this guard let it slip that the Admiral and you needed privacy here in sick bay,” she turned to glare at the guard, “The press took that piece of information and ran with it. They also got confirmation out of him that you two were engaged.”

At this point the guard stepped in, “I was only trying to defend you, Sir! They were making all kinds of accusations about you and some were even saying that the only reason you got the Presidency was because you agreed to marry Zarek. I saw the truth as the only option, and quite frankly, it isn’t a bad thing…We are all happy for the two of you.”

“That is great and all, but it’s not just you we have to worry about!” Tory yelled.

“Tory,” I say sternly, “It’s not his fault. We both slipped up today, but I am too tired to deal with this right now. I will address the fleet tomorrow.”

I excused the two of them and curl back up against Bill’s side. Tomorrow was going to be hell, but hopefully I will have some medicine to help take away this awful flu.


	16. Chapter 16

Three Months, 2 Week and 3 Days

I open my eyes and look up at the man next to me. He is already awake and is watching me, lightly stroking my back with his hand. 

“Good morning,” he says with the usual morning gravel in his voice, “How are you feeling?”

“I actually feel a lot better,” I say, hugging him tightly.

“That’s probably because your fever broke last night,” Bill says, pointing to the ice packs and cooling blankets on a table near-by.

“That would explain why my clothes feel a bit damp,” I giggle.

“I would offer to help you take them off, but you and I both know that I wouldn’t let you get dressed again.”

“I don’t think Cottle would appreciate that,” I smile.

“No, I wouldn’t,” Cottle’s voice causes us both to turn towards him, “I might not mind seeing you naked, young lady, mostly because I have seen it all before, but I am not going to see Bill’s naked ass until it is medically necessary.”

I feel Bill chuckle beside me and I elbow him in the side, “He just said that he wouldn’t mind seeing your fiancé naked and you think it is funny?”

He sat up and pulled me onto his lap, “A lot of men want to see you naked, Laura. What I find funny is that none of them are ever going to get the chance while I’m still breathing. Plus, I think you are the only one who will ever want to see my naked ass.”

“I better be the only one that gets to see it, Bill Adama,” I scold lightly, “And I happen to think it is a very nice ass. Maybe even…perfectly shaped.”

We both chuckle at that and I watch as Cottle rolls his eyes, “Okay, that’s enough. You’re fever broke so there is no need for you to stay here anymore, and the tests are no longer necessary. Make room for the sick people and take your fiancé with you, young lady. You are still going to want to take it easy for the next couple of days, and Bill, you are going to have to take care of her.”

With that said, Cottle was gone, and Bill and I were left laughing in the hospital bed. He placed a few kisses on my forehead before he started to get up from the bed. 

“What do you say to going back to our quarters and I can make you some tea to help you feel better?” he asked as he pulled me to my feet.

“I think that is-” I begin, but am cut off by Tory storming in.

“I’m sorry, Madame President, but you cannot go back to the Admiral’s quarters right now,” she said a bit forcefully, “You need to address the press and tell them about this engagement. I wrote a speech for you to read, but I have a feeling you are not going to want to use it.”

I turn to the chair that is holding my suit jacket, shoes, and glasses and begin to get dressed, “I have an idea of what I want to say, Tory, but thank you.”

Bill is silently waiting next to me, helping to put on my jacket and offer a smile when Tory huffs out something about running late. I am trying to think of what to say and how to address the press, and as the ideas go through my head, I decided to bring up the fact that I am sick and still recovering. Hopefully they will take pity on me, especially after almost dying of cancer. As Bill rests his hand lightly on my elbow, I place a quick kiss on his lips and smile. 

“Do you want me to be with you and we can take the questions together?” Bill asks quietly.

I shake my head, “I think I should address them and if they ask a question that needs to answered by you or the both of us, then you should be near-by.”

He nods and gestures for me to go ahead of him through sick bay and wherever Tory was leading us. As we get further and further away from the quiet solidarity of the hospital wing, I can hear the distinct sound of yelling that could only be coming from the vultures that started this mess. We were headed to the conference room aboard Galactica, and it takes me a while to realize that I am not nearly as nervous as I thought I would be. Maybe because it is about time that Bill and I have the freedom to have our relationship outside of our quarters. 

Maybe this means that I won’t have to go back to Colonial One except on official business. I adjust my engagement ring so that it is clearly visible in all its glory and look back at Bill one last time before I have to face the press for the second time in 24 hours. He gives me a reassuring smile, and I am ready to walk through those doors. There is a rush of action, but they seemed to have taken my recent illness into account because they remained seated and waited for me to make it to the podium before they started asking questions.

I place one hand in the air and wait for them to quiet down before speaking, “I apologize for keeping you all waiting and for having to leave so abruptly yesterday evening. It appears that while I was visiting the civilian ships last week, I picked up a cast of the flu, fever and all. My fever broke late last night and while I am no longer contagious, I am still physically exhausted, so please excuse me if I am not quite my usual self.

“I understand that yesterday I may have given everybody cause to question some things about my personal life, and I would like to clear everything up. However, with that being said, I would ask that you all keep your questions until I have a chance to fully explain myself. I promise to answer any and all of your questions that I have time for to the best of my ability. I also ask that you do not jump to conclusions about whether or not this will affect my ability to carry out the duties of a president. I am my own person and I promise to not let my personal life affect the lives of others.”

I pause to scan the faces of the people sitting in front of me and can tell that while some of them are taking this seriously, others are just waiting for me to get to the juicy parts. I look down at the ring on my finger and smile. I can do this, and they can go frak themselves after they get their gods damn story. I just want to go back to our quarters and talk about when this ring will be joined by another. 

Taking a deep breath, I begin my speech, “The ring I am wearing, is indeed an engagement ring, and I got it over a month ago. I have been careful to hide it because I knew that there was going to be a reaction similar to this one once I did. After the events that took place on New Caprica, my fiancé and I realized that we deserved the right to be happy and live as regular people. We lost a lot when our home was destroyed, and we thought we would lose people in space, but we never thought that we would lose people on New Caprica the way we did.

“The exodus was a time to celebrate and more, but even more importantly, it was a time to rethink our lives. I decided that I no longer wanted to live my life alone when I may never get the chance to have a normal life again. I wanted some semblance of a normal life, and I got that in the form of love. In a minute, I will tell you who my fiancé is in order to put some of the rumors you may have heard to rest. First, I would like all of you to know that this was in no way planned and we have no ulterior motives.”

Looking over to Tory, she nods as if to give her approval and I decide to just get it over with it, “Many of you have speculated that my fiancé may be the former President and current Vice President, Tom Zarek. You have also speculated that the reason I got engaged was to secure the presidency. I can tell you that neither of these theories are true, or even close to being true. My fiancé and I are engaged because we love each other, and that is the only reason…My fiancé is William Adama.”

There we go. It’s out in the open, and as Bill comes to my side and embraces me, I couldn’t be happier. We no longer have to hide anything, and for the first time in my life I might actually be relieved to let the press know all about my life. 

“Madame President! Admiral Adama!” a reporter yells, and I am forced back into reality, “Are you two saying that you have been having a relationship in secret?”

“While we may have hid it, I can tell you that this engagement is only a month old and before that I was not the President,” I say simply.

“But how long have you been involved?” another one asks.”

“We started our romantic involvement about two weeks before people started settling on New Caprica,” Bill answers for me, tightening his grip on my hip.

“You said you started your ‘romantic’ relationship then,” somebody in the back calls out, “that implies that you had some kind of relationship before that.”

“We were simply friends,” I practically roll my eyes, “The both of us became close because we are the leaders of the fleet and there aren’t very many people that understand what we do and the kind of stress that comes with this job. So yes, before we became romantically involved, we were and still are very close friends.”

I see Tory giving me the sign to wrap it up, and I nod to her before whispering to Bill, “We have about 5 more minutes.”

He grunts, “Let’s hope it goes by faster than the past few minutes.”

“We have time for maybe two more questions,” I say to the shell-shocked press members.

I see a young woman with her hand up and gesture to her, “Madame President, Admiral, have you decided when you are going to be married?”

“We haven’t decided yet,” Bill states before moving on to the next person.

“Are you going to have a public ceremony?” the reporter Bill chose asked.

“No plans have been made yet,” Bill answers again, “We have not had much time to talk about our wedding, but I do not think we will be having a public ceremony due to the fact that there would be security issues and we do not like our private lives to be on display.”

There was outrage at that comment and soon people were standing up demanding a public ceremony, “There needs to be proof that this is real!” “The fleet deserves to know!” “We can’t have the leaders of the fleet keeping stuff like this a secret!” “How can we trust that this isn’t a ploy to combine the military and civilian powers into one?”

These questions rang out and echoed throughout the room, so I turn to Bill with a plan, “What if we agree to do a public ceremony that is short and we can a private ceremony for just us before hand?”

Bill thought it over for a moment before he quickly told the press our idea and we were soon excusing ourselves from the loud room. We quickly escaped to the confines of our quarters and collapse down on the couch. We are quiet for a while, trying to comprehend how we are going to organize two wedding ceremonies in a week. I turn to look at Bill, but as soon as our gazes meet, we both burst out into laughter. 

“So I guess we are getting married in a week,” he chuckles and I crawl closer to him and lay my head on his shoulder. 

“I guess we are,” I laugh with him and place a gentle kiss on his neck.

“We could have the private ceremony here in our quarters and the public ceremony on the flight deck of Galactica. It should be big enough to hold the important people and a few others,” He offers while running his hand through my hair.

“I like that idea,” I smile, “Can we have our ceremony first?” I ask, looking up into his crystal blue eyes.

He nods before pulling me onto his lap, “I can find a priest for the private ceremony quickly. We could be officially married by the end of my shift tomorrow…how does that sound?”

“That sounds perfect, Bill,” I kiss him on the lips and adjust myself a bit so I am straddling him, “I can ask Lee and Kara to be there and you can ask Saul as well.”

“I’ll ask him tomorrow,” Bill pulls me closer to him, “I think we can deal with the public ceremony later. Right now I want to take you to bed with me and show you just how happy I am having you as my wife.”

I feel his hands snake around to grab my ass and he uses his newfound hold to pull me flush against his chest. I shriek as I am pulled forward, but as soon as I feel his arousal against me, my shriek gives way to a moan. I lean down to kiss his lips and he begins to devour my mouth. Lightly, he caresses my lips with his before he begins to use his tongue to pry my lips open. Soon, we are both battling with our tongues, trying to taste every inch of each other’s mouths. One of his hands stays on my ass as his other one works its way into my hair, and mine stay firmly latched onto the short hairs at the back of his neck. 

I begin to grind myself against him, and as I do, Bill groans and breaks the kiss to work his way down my jawline and neck. Tilting my head back to give him better access, I reach down to start unbuttoning his uniform and soon his tanks as showing and I a tearing at those too. He finally lets go of my ass to work my jacket and top off and I use that moment to work his tanks off. I love looking at his strong arms as they flex and move around me, and with his tanks off, I can run my hands from his chests all the way down to his wrists. 

We both for each other’s pants and quickly unbutton them and take turns working them off of our bodies. Both only in our underwear, I resume the grinding motion of my hips and let my center move lightly over his arousal. He is straining through his boxers and as I continue to tease him, he turns to my breast as payback. Slowly running his hands down my arms, taking my bra strap with him, he reaches behind me to unlatch it. He starts to slowly kneed and kiss my breasts, occasionally nipping lightly at the flesh. By the time he reaches m nipples, they are hard and I am barely containing the urge to jump him. 

Placing both of his hands on my ass again, he rocks forward and lifts me up as he stands, “I think we should continue this in our rack,” he groans.

I can only nod and plant my lips firmly against his. There seems to be a fire in my blood because I feel like I am burning up and ready to burst. As soon as we make it to the rack, he sets me down and I reach for his boxers and pull them down. I go to reach for his arousal, but he pushes me down and removes my underwear. Soon he is entering me and we are both lost to the world.

“Please don’t stop, Bill,” I gasp into his ear, “Please don’t ever stop.”

He grunts and picks up the pace, “Never.”

He kisses my lips and holds my hands above my head as he continues to thrust into me. We are both extremely close to the edge and with his words of encouragement, I know I am going to explode soon.

“You’re almost there, Laura,” he says while kissing my neck, “Just let go.”

I arch my back as every muscle in my body tenses up, “Oh gods! Bill! Yes, Bill!” 

Bill follows me over the edge and we both collapse into the mattress and catch our breath.

“I love you, Laura,” he says as he covers the both of us with a blanket and pulls me into his side.

“I love you too, Bill,” I smile and kiss his chest.

We lay there a few more minutes and are almost asleep when there is a banging on the hatch. I groan as Bill reluctantly untangles himself from me and the blanket and throws on his boxers and tanks. The banging on the hatch continues, and I decided to start getting dressed in case it’s an emergency. I watch as Bill disappears into the other room and soon I can hear the sound of the hatch opening. I just finish putting on a spare suit when Bill comes around the corner with a worried look on his face. 

“Bill what’s wrong?” I am instantly at his side, placing a hand on his arm.

“Laura, Cottle is here and he needs to talk to us,” he says.

I nod and head into the next room to see Cottle sitting on the couch, “Bill said that you needed to talk to me.”

“I do,” Cottle says while gesturing for us to take a seat, “I know I told you that I was going to stop the test because they weren’t needed, but I had to perform emergency surgery and I never got around to stopping them. I just got the results back and something popped up.”


	17. Chapter 17

Three Months, 2 Week and 4 Days

I looked around the room and tried to think of something that could be appropriate for me to wear. As much as I felt that Bill wouldn’t care what I was wearing, I wanted something special for my wedding day. Looking at the suits in front of me and the single red dress that I had found on New Caprica, I decided to go with the dress. Pulling it out, I lay it on our rack and head for the bathroom to freshen up. The priest is supposed to be here soon, and Lee, Kara, and Saul are not going to be far behind. Taking a quick shower, I make sure to use some of the little perfume I have left because I know Bill loves it. I put on his robe and emerge from the head to see Kara and Tory waiting for me.

“Hello you two,” I say a bit surprised, “What can I help you with?”

“Actually, Madame Prez,” Kara smiles, hiding something behind her back, “We are here to help you.”

I tilt my head to the side and look at the women in front of me, “I don’t understand.”

“I found my old curling iron and a few hair pins that we can use to do your hair,” Tory picked up a box that I hadn’t yet noticed, “Plus, there is some basic makeup in here as well.”

There are tears in my eyes as I take in the contents of the box. Something so simple was going to make my day the greatest day of my life. 

Kara then clears her throat and I watch as a grin makes its way across her face, “I also found something that might help. It’s simple, but I found the woman that made that red dress you love so much,” she nodded towards the garment on the bed, “and I asked her to make something for you.”

Bringing her hands out from behind her back, I see her holding a large box that has seen better days. She handed it to me and urged me to open it, so I sat on the edge of the bed and waited for them to join me.

“Nothing is going to explode, right?” I laughed as I traced the lid of the box with my fingers.

They both shake their heads ‘no’ and so I left the lid slowly and see an off white fabric. I grasp it lightly and remove it from the box, and as I pull it out, I see a simple gown. It has a sweetheart neckline and simple embroidery on the top half of the gown, while the rest was left plain and fell naturally. It was gorgeous. I laid it on the bed behind me and turned to the women in front of me.

“I can’t believe you were able to do this,” I gasp and pull Kara into a hug.

She hugs me back before whispering, “You and the Old Man deserve it.”

“Thank you,” I whisper back before turning to Tory, “and thank you for finding all of this. This day is going to be even more special than I thought it would be.”

“It wasn’t a problem, Madame President,” Tory placed the box on the bed and made her way towards the living room and the hatch, “I will make sure that the public ceremony is set up for later.”

“Thank you, Tory,” I said softly as she made her exit.

I turn to Kara and just smile. I can’t believe that I am going to have an actual wedding gown and makeup for my wedding day. I hear the hatch open and the voices of Bill and the Priest, so I begin to pull on the red dress that I got on New Caprica. I’ll wear the gown for the public ceremony and put on some of the lipstick for now. I know Bill loves this red dress, and I don’t want him to see the gown until the public ceremony. I quickly slip into it and tell Kara to let them know that I’m ready for the ceremony to begin.

Kara comes back around the corner, “They are ready for you, and you look gorgeous.”

I grab her hand and pull her to me, “I cannot thank you enough for being here and getting that dress.”

She hugged me and whispered, “It’s about time the Old Man and you had some happiness. You both deserve it.”

We pull away and as she is walking into the living room, I catch her hand, “Bill’s not the only one that sees you as a daughter.”

I can see her shock and tears forming in her eyes, so I take her hand and pull her into the living room and towards the rest of the group. I turn to Bill and see that he is wearing his uniform, and so are Lee and Saul who are to his left. The priest is standing to his right and is smiling at me. Kara and I walk towards the small gathering, and we stop just in front of them. As Kara pulls away, Bill pulls me toward himself. 

“Madame President, Admiral,” the Priest says, “Are we ready?”

“Yes,” we said in unison as we got lost in each other’s eyes.

I am sure that the Priest said more than the few questions he asked us, but I didn’t really hear him. Bill is holding my hands and I am focused on the feel of his thumb stroking my skin. I can smell his scent and the way it comforts and excites me is amazing. His soft smile lets me know that he loves me and is never going to let me down. I can see the love sparkling in his crystal blue eyes as tears fight to be released. I am sure all of these things are reflected in my gaze at him, and it just makes me smile more. 

We heard Saul clear his throat and realize that the Priest has stopped talking and this is the time for us to finish up the ceremony with a kiss. I am sure I blush, but Bill simply pulls me to him and places a passionate kiss on my lips. Soon I am humming and deep into the kiss and can barely hear the others clapping. Bill pulls back and we both look around to see everyone smiling at us.

“We are going to head to the flight deck to help with the event,” Lee said as he hugged his father and then placed a soft kiss on my cheek.

“Thank you, Lee,” Bill said before turning to shake Saul’s hand, hug Kara, and thank the Priest. 

Soon we were alone and as the hatch was locked behind the Priest, I walked up behind Bill and wrapped my arms around his waist. I placed a kiss on his neck and hear him almost growl, and before I can move, I am lifted up into the air. I wrap my legs around his hips and kiss him hard as he begins walking us backwards towards the bedroom. He lays me down on the bed and begins to slowly undress me, but I know that we don’t have time for that.

“Bill, we have to hurry,” I pant as I quickly unbutton his uniform. 

“But I want to enjoy you, Mrs. Adama,” he nipped at my lips and pulled my top off. 

I giggled at the title, “I want to enjoy you too, Mr. Adama, but I have to start getting ready in 30 minutes.”

“I’m sure you can get ready in 20 minutes,” he groaned as my hand found its way into his boxers.

“Not if I have to shower too,” I quickly divest him of his clothes and he does the same to me.

Even though we were quick, it was even more passionate now that we were married. There was another connection in our love, and it made everything feel amazing. By the time we both cried out in release, I had 34 minutes to get in the shower and get ready. Bill, being the gentleman he is, carried me into the bathroom and joined me in the shower to make sure that I was clean and ready to get into my dress. I used his robe and he got dressed. I’m not quite sure how we managed to stay on task, but we did. 

He was dressed and about to leave when Kara knocked on the hatch and offered to help me get ready. Bill wished us good luck before kissing me on the lips and leaving us to prepare for the public ceremony alone.

Kara pulled me into the bathroom while gathering up everything, “We have about 20 minutes to get you ready so let’s do it.”

I can’t help but laugh as she sat the box down on the counter and quickly plugged in the curling iron. While we waited for it to heat up, she pulled out the simple makeup and began to apply the eyeshadow, mascara, and lipstick. I watched as she tilted her head to the left, then the right, and then to the left again.

“I think this is some of my best work,” she smiled.

“Really?” I laugh, “and how much experience have you had with doing makeup?”

“You’d be surprised,” she said softly before moving out of the way of the mirror, “I went for a natural look. What do you think?”

Looking at my reflection, I can’t help but think that I seem as if I’m glowing, “It’s perfect, Kara. Thank you.”

She had kept everything simple. The different shades of brown helped to bring out the color of my eyes, and the dark red lipstick was the perfect addition. Kara started on my hair and asked me how I wanted it, and after staring in the mirror, I finally decided to go with the same simple nature of the makeup. 15 minutes later, my hair was in soft ringlets that were pinned at the back of my head. It looked like a half up half down due, and she let some of the ringlets hang loose to frame my face. 

“Well, I’d say we have just enough time to get you into your dress,” Kara said softly.

I can only nod as I follow her into the bedroom to put on the gorgeous gown. As she helps me into it, I begin to get the giggles. Kara laughs along with me and rubs her hands down my arms as she steps back.

“You look beautiful, Laura. I will see you on the flight deck,” she said before kissing my cheek and heading toward the living room and out the hatch.

I twirl around in the bedroom and take a deep breath. I know that I was already married to Bill, but with the dress and the impending crowd, I couldn’t help thinking that I was about to walk into something new. I head to the hatch and just as I exit, I see Cottle standing by my security detail.

“What are you doing here, Jack?” I gasp, “Was there something else in my test results?”

“No, young lady,” he hushes, “I already gave you the good news about the blood work, but this has nothing to do with that.”

“Then why are you here and not on the flight deck?” I asked a bit confused as to why he was not with everyone else.

“Because Bill and I agreed that you needed somebody to walk you down the aisle,” he said softly.

I instantly feel tears spring to my eyes at the thought that my husband and my hard head of a doctor put into this. Reaching out to him, I squeeze his arm and nod, not able to talk. He begins to escort me through the halls of Galactica and before I know it, we are walking towards Bill in his dress greys. Saul, Lee and Chief are standing next to him, and Kara, Tory and Dee are waiting for me. There are hundreds of people around us. Some of them civilian, but most of them are members of Bill’s crew. I can see that there are a few faces amongst the crowd that are anything but happy, and Bill and I knew that some of them would not like the idea of the two heads of government together. 

I block them out though, and focus on the man I love. He is smiling like a fool and can’s stop looking me up and down. I hadn’t told him about the make-up and dress, and the surprise on his face made me sure that I made the right decision. As I walk towards him, I can feel the dress elegantly float around my feet as I try hard not to trip while looking straight at my husband. His uniform looks great on him and I realize that I can’t wait to see him out of it. Ever since we got the news from Cottle, we haven’t been able to keep our hands to ourselves. I get closer and closer to Bill and cannot help but wink at him, which causes Cottle to scoff.

“You two need to behave,” he whispered into my ear.

“I can’t make any promises,” I giggle back.

Soon enough, Jack is handing me over to Bill as he places a kiss to my forehead. I smile at him and take Bill’s hand, listening as one of the Quorum members starts to officiate the ceremony. We exchange the rings that Bill had made, and soon we are given the go ahead to kiss. As we are pulling apart, the whistling and hollering dies down so that we can address the crowd. However, before we can go any further, we hear shouting from the back of the crowd.

“First they get married and now she is having a child! How the frak do we know it’s even the Admiral’s and not some cylon that fraked her on New Caprica?!” 

“Bill,” I gasp, trying to figure out how this had happened and how they had found out.

Cottle’s News

He came in to tell us that the blood tests had not been canceled, but something came back positive. 

“You are pregnant, young lady,” he said as Bill and I tried not to faint.

“I’m what?” I whispered.

“Pregnant,” he grumbled, “And it looks like you conceived back on New Caprica.”

“New Caprica?”Bill asked, “But I didn’t...we didn’t-”

“Could it be part cylon?” I say coldly, realizing that it may not be Bill’s.

“I can’t tell,” Cottle says, “The test that I ran on Sharon was a bit different since I was looking for the cylon gene in her and human DNA in the fetus. You have a mixture of both and did when you conceived, so I can’t tell if the genetic makeup of the child is due to the father or your own make up.”

“Is there a way to check?” I asked.

“Laura,” Bill whispered, “We both know it couldn’t be mine. I didn’t…um..finish.”

“Bill,” I sigh, “You should know that you don’t have to ejaculate to get a woman pregnant.”

Cottle starts to laugh but when I turn a glare to him, he stops and tries to cover it with a cough.

“Can we check, Jack?” I ask again.

“We will have to wait a bit in order to not risk the safety of the child, but you are right Laura, and I think that you and Bill should start celebrating,” he said before making his way to leave.

“Wait!” Bill calls out, “How can you be so sure that it’s mine?”

“Based on the timing Admiral,” Cottle says dryly, “it looks like you knocked up your fiancé on the day that you saved our asses on New Caprica.”

With that said, Cottle left and Bill and I were left alone to think about the fact that we were going to have a baby.

“You’re going to be a father,” I smiled at him, watching as he laughed and reach out to me. 

Soon he was spinning me in the air, making me forget about the few hours of time that I can’t account for with Leoben two days before Bill came back. We were going to be parents and tomorrow we were going to be married.

 

Present Time

I can’t believe that one of my own guards would sell us out like that, but here we are in front of him. He had heard Cottle give us the news and decided that being married to the Admiral and having his kid was just too much. Based on the accusations he is making, he heard everything that night, including my doubts about the child being a human. Bill already escorted him down to the brig and Tory was changing out my security detail with the help of Lee and Kara. I decide that I want to question this guard, Jamison, as well, but before I can, the Condition 1 alarm goes off.

Bill, Kara, Lee, Saul, and I rush up to CIC only to find out that the cylon base ship that appeared on Dradis was requesting to talk to us. If that wasn’t bad enough, they had Baltar aboard their ship and they wanted to get rid of him. I can only imagine how much trouble he must have caused for them, and I want to jump away and tell them to frak off. We may not be able to cause as much damage as they have to us, but Baltar being with them would cause enough pain and suffering to cover us for a while. As Bill and I make our way to the conference room, I cannot help but think that this is the best and worst day of my life. If I ever get the chance to kill Baltar, I will not hesitate to strangle the fraking weasel.


	18. Chapter 18

Three Months, 2 Week and 5 Days

I am actually glad that we decided to wait until morning to do anything with the cylon base ship. Apparently they want to talk to us about a possible agreement and give back Baltar, but they want to wait until they can arrange a shuttle and we can make sure that they will make it onto Galactica without being killed. As Laura, I have to fight the urge to let something slip through the cracks and let somebody kill every last one of them, but as Madame President, I know that I have to act diplomatic. I want to forget about everything that Baltar and the cylons put me through, but it seems that every time I get close to forgetting, something happens to bring the memories back. 

Bill and I agreed that we would both greet the cylons and Baltar in a conference room and then decide what to do with them from there. We made arrangements to have several guards, excluding the one that had outed us during the ceremony, watch the corridors and be prepared to intervene if need be. There would be only three guards in the room with us unless more than two cylons showed up, and the rest would be outside. It took forever to get both of our security details to agree to the arrangements, but by the time they finally did, Bill and I were both exhausted and ended up falling asleep as soon as we laid down. 

“What are you thinking about, Laura?” Bill calls from my left.

I turn to him and see the worried look on his face, “Just about how Baltar always seems to be the cause of our problems.”

He grunts and joins me on the couch, putting his arm around me. I lay my head on his shoulder and lean into him, taking solace in his warmth. 

“How long do we have?” I ask without looking up.

“Unfortunately we only have a few minutes before they arrive,” he said as he kissed the top of my head. 

I sigh and break away from him to stand up and readjust my clothes in an effort to look presentable.

“Let’s get this over with, shall we?” I offer him a small smile and help him off the couch.

“I think that is a great idea, Mrs. Adama,” he smiles back, pulling me to him to place a gentle yet passionate kiss on my lips. 

I hum and can’t help but laugh a little with the giddiness that comes with being a newly married woman. It is just a feeling that I cannot explain, and I think that fact in itself is enough to show how much I care for my husband. My husband…I think I love that title on Bill more than Admiral. He kisses my lips one last time before we head down the hallway and towards the conference room that we are supposed to have our meeting in. My heart is pounding and I can feel my stomach start to turn as we enter the room and there are two more guards in the room.

“Sir,” one of the guards stepped forward, “Col. Tigh wanted two more of us in here because they are sending three cylons along with Baltar, so here we are.”

“Which ones are they sending?” Bill asked as we settled into our seats. 

“I don’t know sir. I was simply told that we need to get up here ASAP,” the guard replied before Bill dismissed him and we were left alone to wonder which cylons would be joining us.

We didn’t have to wait long to find out because soon we were given the signal that we were about to have visitors. Bill helped me up and stood slightly in front of me as the first cylon made its way into the room. D’Anna was first, followed by a few guards and then Baltar. I thought I was going to lung at him, but I was stopped cold as I saw the next two cylons make their way through the hatch. Cavil was first and Leoben. I couldn’t breathe. 

“Are you alright?” Bill whispered into my ear, lightly squeezing my elbow.

I nod because I can’t seem to find my voice at the moment. Leoben and Cavil are both staring at me and I don’t know why they won’t just blink already! They are going to make me sick, but I can’t show anymore weakness in front of them. 

“Madame President,” Baltar says nervously, “I can’t tell you how good it is to see you again.”

I draw away from him and turn to D’Anna, trying not to look at the two cylons to her right. Bill walks around to stand between Baltar and me while placing a calming hand on my lower back. 

“What exactly do you want?” Bill asks, sparing me from having to talk.

“We would like to give you back your former President and maybe negotiate a future way of…cooperation,” D’Anna said while sitting down in a nearby chair.

Whatever was holding me back earlier is gone at her words, and I feel nothing but furry as I turn to her.

“You think we want him back?! Did you honestly think that there was any way that we would take him back and then sit here and talk to you about some kind of peaceful agreement?” I yell and feel Bill come up behind me to offer some support.

He turns to my ear and whispers, “Please watch your blood pressure. Remember what Cottle said about it hurting the baby?” 

I give a slight nod and back away from D’Anna and turn my back to the others in the room to try to get my heart rate under control. Bill is right. I can’t risk losing our baby.

“You’re pregnant?” Leoben smiles as he steps towards me, only to have guards surround him immediately. 

I whip around so quickly that I am dizzy when I come to a stop and Bill is instantly at my side. 

“How far along?” Cavil asks as he too steps forward.

“That is none of your business, and if you take another step towards my wife, I will personally put a bullet between your eyes,” Bill growls and pushes me behind him. 

Leoben seemed disappointed at the idea of me and Bill as a married couple, but Cavil seemed unaffected. They knew something, and it suddenly dawned on me that this pregnancy could have something to do with those missing hours before Bill arrived. 

“I am guessing your wife didn’t tell you about the fact that she probably can’t remember what she did right before you arrived on New Caprica,” Cavil sneered as his gaze moved from Bill to me.

“I guess it’s not really something she thought about,” Leoben jumped in and looked to Bill, “she was a bit unconscious and we made sure she wouldn’t remember it…even if it meant her forgetting how our child was made.”

I feel my legs turn into jelly as his words sunk in. I shake my head slowly and try to form some kind of response, but I can’t. Nothing is working. My mind is frozen and the rest of my body has shut down in its absence. I turn to Bill as I start falling towards to ground and he is holding me up in an instant. 

“Do you honestly expect us to believe that?!” Bill practically yelled.

Cavil shrugged and pointed towards my stomach, “The proof is growing in her stomach right now.”

I place my hand over my stomach and look down at the small roundness that is barely even there. I think I knew deep down that the father of this baby might not be Bill, but I was hoping that after everything the Lords of Kobol have put me through that they would allow me this one piece of happiness. The cylons can’t take this away from me.

“What happened that day?” I say coldly as I turn to the two monsters that are slowly taking away every piece of light in my life. 

“We took it upon ourselves to ensure that you might be the person to carry out a hybrid pregnancy since you were the one who took the last one from us all,” Cavil sneered. 

“What the FRAK did you do to me?!” I look straight at Leoben now, hoping that he would be more sympathetic and just tell me what he did.

Leoben seemed to hesitate for a moment before he takes a step closer, “We artificially inseminated you and hoped that the cylon DNA that was in your bloodstream would help with your fertility… and it did.”

He smiled at me and tried to reach out to me, but the guards and Bill have him pinned against a wall before he can even get close to me. Cavil uses the chaos to pull me towards him, and look into my eyes.

“This child will be the perfect hybrid,” he said quickly, “and the question you should be asking yourself is not if it’s a human or a hybrid, but whether it is Leoben’s child or mine.”

I feel bile rise up in my stomach and I vaguely register Bill pulling out a side arm and firing a single shot. Cavil falls to the ground and I know he is dead, or at least this version of him is, but my life is gone. There is no way that I could forget his words. 

“Laura?” Bill questions as he pulls me into his side, “Are you alright?”

I shake my head no and pull away from him to race to the nearest bathroom. I rush out the hatch and down the hallway because I am pretty sure that there is a bathroom just around the corner. When I find it, I rush in and lock myself in the nearest stall as my breakfast greets me again. I hear knocking on the stall door and I am sure it is either Bill or one of my guards checking up on me, but I don’t care at this moment. My stomach empties itself one more time and I feel like I can stand up, so I push off the ground and unlock the door to come face to face with my husband and one of the guards. 

“Let’s go back to our quarters,” Bill offers as he hands me a damp paper towel. 

I take the paper towel and try to make myself somewhat presentable before taking his hand and letting him lead me back to our room. As we are walking through the halls, several people are looking at me strangely and I can’t figure out why. A little boy comes running up to me and stops to stare at my stomach.

“I’m sorry, Madame President,” his mother comes after him, “we were just on our way to talk to the Quorum.”

She seems to be angry with me, but I don’t know why, “That’s okay. He is fine.”

 

The mother goes to pull her son away, but he doesn’t want to move. He keeps looking right at my stomach, so I look to the mother for some kind of explanation. She rolled her eyes before huffing out her response.

“He is worried about the cylon child you are pregnant with.”

“How- What are you talking about?” I stutter, looking back at Bill with fear gripping my heart.

“It’s already halfway across the ship. Baltar wouldn’t shut up about it,” she replied before tugging her son’s arm hard, “Come on Thomas. We are going to leave the Admiral and his cylon loving whore.”

“Wait just a damn minute!” Bill explodes next to me, “This is MY child and I don’t give a damn about what Baltar or the cylons say. My wife and I are the parents and this child is human.”

She paused for a moment before pulling her son along and mumbling something that sounded like a “whatever” under her breath. I feel Bill try to go after her, but I place my hand on his arm and shake my head. 

“I just want to go back to our room,” I say softly.

Without saying anything, he turns and heads in the direction of our quarters. The looks keep coming and I have ever been so relieved to be in our room. I turn to Bill and I can see that he is looking at me with worry and sadness. 

“Is it true?” he said as tears began to form behind his crystal blue eyes.

“What? That there are a few hours missing from my memory from right before you rescued us? Or that is it either Leoben’s or Cavil’s?” I ask.

“Both,” he said quietly.

“I can’t remember what happen in those few hours, so I don’t know if it is theirs or not,” I reply before sitting on the couch and pulling my knees to my chest. 

Bill sits down next to me and pulls me into his lap, “We will figure this out, Laura. They could be lying or it really could be ours.” 

I just cried into his shoulder as I thought about whether or not I would be giving Bill a child or taking one away from him while also betraying him. That’s what all of this felt like. As if I was betraying him by even thinking about this child belonging to a cylon. He carries me to the bedroom and sets me gently on the bed before grabbing a blanket and wrapping it around me. He climbed in behind me and just held me until we were both asleep and waiting for the next day to plow us down. 

By the time we woke up the next morning, everyone was in a panic as threats from several of the civilian ships were coming in over the coms. I had an emergency meeting with the Quorum in about thirty minutes, and Bill had to leave early to deal with everything. So, here I am stressing out over how I am going to figure out whose child I am carrying as I fly in a rickety shuttle from Galactica to Colonial One. I can feel my heart trying to run from my chest, and it is not helping the fact that I have to pee and my stomach wants to empty itself. 

“We are docked, Madame President,” Lee says from the front seat.

Bill had made sure that only people we knew would be around me since tensions were so high, and Lee had volunteered to fly me back and forth. 

“Thank you, Lee,” I say before exiting the raptor only to be bombarded by the press and Quorum members. 

All of them seem to be screaming the same question, and I can no longer tell which ones are on my side and which ones are ready to burn me at the steak. I push my way through the crowd and head straight to the meeting room and wait for the Quorum members to arrive. As they begin to file in and shout at me, I can’t help be wish that Bill was here with me. 

3 Hours Later…

Bill walks into my office and comes around my desk to lightly kiss me before he circles around me and begins to work the knots out of my back. I hum and moan as I feel some of the tension leave me. His hands travel over my shoulders and then back down to the center of my back. He then wraps his arms around my stomach and helps me stand up while moving his hands up to my breasts. 

“Bill,” I gasp as I realize that the only thing separating us from everyone else is a flimsy curtain. 

“You’ll just have to be quiet,” he chuckled into my ear.

He knows that will be almost impossible for me, and I think he is trying to keep me from thinking about today. I lean back against him as one of his hands goes lower and I bite my lip in frustration. He is going very slowly and he knows that sooner or later I am going to break and basically tackle him to the ground. 

“Bill please!” I try to grind myself against his hand, but he just moves it away.

“Patience,” he whispers while kissing the shell of my ear.

“Have you met me?” I laugh and spin around to face him.

“I have,” he smiled, “and that is why I am going to pick you up and carry you into your bedroom and make love to my beautiful wife.”

“Hmmm, I like that idea,” I smile before kissing him hard.

And just as he promised, he picked me up and took me into the back room and proceeded to make me forget about everything that was worrying me at the moment. At least I will get some peace until we wake up and are forced back into reality. Tomorrow I will have to talk to Cottle about testing the baby and when we can, because I don’t know if I can have this baby if it is not Bill’s.


	19. Chapter 19

Four Months, 3 Week and 6 Days

 

I woke up this morning in Bill’s arms and for a moment I forgot all about what had was happening today. He was had his hand resting on my belly and was lightly kissing my neck and I honestly did not want to get up from my poor excuse for a bed. It wasn’t until the intercom went off and Tory’s voice broke through my haze that I realized that we had work to do. We kissed each other goodbye on the hangar deck of Galactica and Bill headed towards CIC while I took off towards sick bay. 

It was eerily quiet as I neared the entrance to sickbay; she had been dreading this for the past few weeks. Ever since that altercation after the scene at the public wedding, that she is carrying a half Cylon baby. She couldn’t get the look on Cavil and Leoben’s face out of her mind, or Bill’s for that matter. Upon entering she was greeted by Layne Ishay who ushered her back to a curtained off area where Doc Cottle was waiting

Cottle immediately pulled me over to the side, “I have a feeling you want to figure out more information on the baby?”

“Yes, but how did you-” I begin only to have him shake his head and lead me towards my usual bed. 

“Word spread pretty quick that the cylons may have engaged in some foul play,” he said while lighting a cigarette, only to put it out when I glared at him, “You’re lucky you’re pregnant.”

Deciding to ignore his last comment, I asked him what had been on my mind since Cavil’s words yesterday, “Can we test to see if the baby is cylon or not? I know you said that it could be dangerous, but I don’t know if I can handle not knowing.”

“You can’t take everything those machines say to heart, young lady,” Cottle sighed, “That being said, I know that you are not going to stop riding my ass until I give you some kind of solution…I will do a sonogram to determine if it is safe to test the baby’s blood directly, but even if the tests say that it is fine to do a blood work up, your body could decide that it’s not and you could lose the child.”

“I know, Jack,” I say, “but I cannot take the chance that Leoben and Cavil are right about this child, and I definitely cannot do that to Bill.”  
With a grunt the cantankerous doctor handed her a yellow hospital gown informing her undress from the waist down. Minutes later I found myself in what I thought was one of the most undignified positions with Doc Cottle in between my legs. Not to mention Ishay holding a long needle that was about to be inserted in my stomach. 

Closing my eyes, I tried not to think about it as the needle came closer and began to pierce my skin. Why couldn’t Bill and I be like every other Fleet couple having their first baby? Fussing over maternity clothes, or fighting over what color to paint the nursery their child would sleep in. But the reality of the situation sank in. What little clothing there was would be donated by some kind hearted woman of the Fleet who took pity on their President. And there would be no nursery in the tin can that was their home just a crib that Chief would probably be asked to build. 

As the pressure from the needle lessened I couldn’t stop thinking about everything that was happening. I could see a strong boy with an unruly mop of reddish hair and green eyes. Or a girl who looked like Tamara, and would be a daddy’s girl- the little girl he always wanted. Opening my eyes, I could see just the sac containing the baby on the screen the needle already gone. 

Cottle began to clean me up, while Ishay places a bandage on the more noticeable swell of my belly. She then takes my hand to help me up, pulling my button down shirt in place. I look towards the old doc. 

“Cramping isn’t unusual but if there is any bleeding come to sick bay immediately. Stay off your feet for the next 2 days, I don’t care if the Lords of Kobol arrive for a meeting. Even if they say they know the way to Earth. If I get wind that you aren’t following my advice the Admiral will hear of this”, he says before leaving me on the hospital cot.

 

“I can maybe run a few preliminary tests to see, but I want to try an experimental procedure that I developed while working with Hera. It may be able to tell me the genetic make-up of the child by separating your DNA markers.”

I just stare at him as he explains this to me, “I am going to pretend that I understood that. My only question is will it hurt the baby?”

Cottle nodded, “You and the child will be perfectly fine, but you may be a bit tender for a few weeks.”

I look up at the word tender, “I swear to the Lords of Kobol if you stick me again like you did in my ass…”

“I’ll be gentle,” he chuckled, “Let me get everything ready and then I will call the Admiral to come get you.”

“I actually have to go back to Colonial One after this,” I say a bit disappointed.

“Ok, but you are going to want to take it easy today and tomorrow,” he said while prepping everything.

“But I am supposed to go visit a few of the civilian ships tomorrow,” I interject. 

He stares at me for a while before rolling his eyes, “I know that I cannot stop you for being a stubborn workaholic, but you need to take it easy. You can go, but just make sure that you have somebody with you every minute to give you plenty of fluids and anything else you may need.” 

I nod before laying back down to let him poke and prod me. He is done in about 45 minutes and he comes back with instructions on what to do and what not to do.

“I should have the results by tomorrow night,” he says.

“I should be back on Galactica by then. Thank you, Jack,” I say gently before he helps me of the bed and out of sick bay.

Bill had to work the rest of the week in the CIC since we both took off some time to enjoy our wedding, so I wasn’t able to see him before I was rushed to Colonial One in order to work out my schedule for tomorrow. The civilian ships have been a little rowdy since the cylons arrived and with Baltar letting his big mouth run, I have to do something soon to calm them down. The cylons have agreed to give us a few days to decide if we want to work something out, but I honestly think they are just sticking around to gloat if the baby is one of theirs. There is nothing we can really do but wait, and I am hoping that time will pay off and we can tell them to frak off.

The Next Day…

Bill barely had time to swing by and give me a kiss before he was called back to CIC to watch the cylon base ship for any kind of suspicious activity. I started my trek around the fleet early in the morning so that I could spend as long as possible on each ship and not have to spend too much of tomorrow doing the same thing. Kara was flying me and Lee was helping with my security detail. 

“Madame President,” Lee said from the cock-pit, “We are about to board.”

“Thank you, Lee,” I reply while gathering up my belongings.

This is the seventh ship I have visited in the past few hours and I am already feeling tired. This is not exactly how I was supposed to spend the first few weeks after getting married, but nothing Bill or I have ever had to do was normal. I took care of my mother and lost my family. Bill lost his son, divorced his wife and was close to losing Lee. I used to think that we could push through anything, but I am not so sure now. This pregnancy is going to be the ultimate test of our relationship. 

As I got off the raptor and stepped onto the hanger deck, I could feel that something was off. There were some civilians there ready to greet us, and my security team cleared the area before I could proceed further into the ship. Everybody who I passed looked at me as if I had another head, but they all stayed a respectable distance away from me, so there wasn’t too much cause for concern. Lee stayed at my side and made sure that I was alright.

“I have a bad feeling, Lee,” I whispered to him.

“Do you need to sit down? Should I call for Doc Cottle?” He questioned.

“No, I am fine. I just meant that something about this ship feels…off,” I say.

“We can cut this meeting short and move along. We did run a little over on the last ship, and I am sure an hour will be enough,” he assures me as we reach the door towards the conference room we will be in. 

As soon as we entered the room, I could tell that I probably would not be making it out anytime soon. The way these people looked at me was a bit different than the hatred I saw in most people’s gaze. They seemed to pity me and I couldn’t tell if it was because of the pregnancy or the truth about what must have happened to me on New Caprica to possibly lead to the pregnancy. There were probably about 20 of them before my guards asked only essential people to stay, and that left 8 of them in the room with Kara, Lee, and me. My guards were stationed outside the doors and were told to come to get me in exactly an hour.

The first person to speak was an elderly woman who was sitting in the middle of all the others. Her voice was soft and yet she commanded a presence that allowed for everyone to hear her. 

“Madame President,” she began, “We want to start out by thanking you for coming here. We all understand that it must be difficult for you to deal with the rumors while trying to settle down after your wedding.”

I was a bit taken aback by her apparent understanding of my situation given the fact that nobody had showed me anything other than disgust since I started my rounds. 

“It is a lot to handle, but I would much rather clear everything up in person than have these rumors continue,” I say politely.

“So they are just that then?” a man about my age asked from his side of the table, “These are just rumors and nothing else?”

“Yes,” I assure him, “they are unsubstantiated rumors and nothing else.”

“Unsubstantiated?” another woman joins in now who looks like the real life Barbie. 

“Are you saying that it is still a possibility?” Ken joined in.

I am starting to get frustrated with these people.

“I am saying that we all know from our experiences on New Caprica that the cylons like to twist and distort anything they can to get a rise out of us. They will do and say anything to get what they want,” I respond evenly.

“Speaking of New Caprica,” Barbie interjected, “what exactly happened to you while you were in detention?”

“That is a question we all want to know the answer to,” a younger man in the back spoke up, “We were all out in the open and if we were put into detention, it was only for a few days. You were gone for almost a month and when you did come out, it was with Leoben.”

“That is not something I am going to share with you,” I say coldly.

“Is that because you know that this child is a cylon?” Life sized Ken was back and he was nothing close to pleasant. 

I glared at him for a moment before responding, “I am not going to say anything because I would bet that none of you would want to share what they did to you. It was a horrendous experience for all of us and I do not want to relive any of it.”

“How do you expect us to just take your word about the pregnancy? Do you even know for sure that it is not part cylon?”

They were all a little restless by now and I could see that the elderly woman in the middle was whispering to Barbie. Barbie disappeared and I had that bad feeling again about this ship. Something was about to happen and we had to get off of this ship now. 

I turn to Lee and whisper, “I think something is about to happen and I don’t want to be here to see it happen.”

He nodded and turned to Kara to let her know before addressing the people in the room, “Unfortunately we must be on our way to see the next ship.”

The entire room seemed to instantly turn hostile as they began shouting and asking why I was avoiding their questions. The elderly woman did not move, though. She just sat in her chair and did not move. I turned to leave and follow Lee with Kara behind me, but when he opened the door something stopped him. 

“What’s wrong, Captain Apollo?” I asked from behind him.

“Move your fraking legs, Lee! We need to get her out of here!” Kara called from behind me. 

“The guards are gone,” he said as he slowly crept forward through the hatch and into the corridor.

The next thing I heard was the cocking of a gun before Lee stopped again and slowly turned towards the origin of the sound. One of my guards was standing with his gun aimed directly between Lee’s eyes. 

“Captain Apollo and Lieutenant Thrace,” he spoke evenly, “I am going to need your weapons.”

Lee turned to Kara before slowly reaching for his sidearm and handing it over. Reluctantly, Kara did the same and moved closer to me. 

“Madame President,” my guard spoke again, “Please step forward or I will be forced to have my men dispose of the two of them.”

I look to see both Lee and Kara shake their heads, but at this point it is too late I have already decided to do as he says and let them take me away. I step forward and away from my company, and as I do I can hear two load grunts and thumps. I turn around quickly to see both Lee and Kara knocked out on the ground.

“Why the frak did you do that?” I yell as I turn back to my former guard, “I was cooperating!”

“They would have only continued to be a problem for us,” he said before motioning for one of his men to come closer, “Especially after we do this.”

I didn’t get the chance to ask him what he meant before I felt the sharp pain of the butt of a gun connecting with the base of my skull. I soon fell into a darkness that I used to know on New Caprica.

CIC…

I can’t believe I had to find out like this. She should have told me that she was going to Cottle, but I know that she wanted to do this alone. Actually, may it is better that she does this alone…I do NOT want to find out that the child I thought was mine is actually put of those machines. Why did they have to pick Laura? Why not somebody else? That sounds horrible, but it is true. Here I am trying to finally enjoy my wife and our time together, and Cavil and Leoben have to come and frak it up! I had to keep every muscle in my body in check when we met with them and I was waiting to see Leoben’s blood on my hands again.

I should have known that something was wrong with Laura. She would always be fine while we were spending time alone, but every time I brought up the pregnancy, she would shy away from the topic. She is really worried that in the few hours that she has no memory of that they may have actually hurt her or inseminated her. I still think it is a load of crap, but the fact that she saw Cottle today only makes me doubt myself more. Saul had passed me the message from Cottle to keep her off of her feet, but I was too late to catch her. Hopefully, we will have the results by the end of today.

“Admiral,” Dee called from her position, “It seems we are receiving a transmission from one of the civilian ships.”

“Which one?” I ask.

“I am not sure, sir.”

“Put it through the comm,” I respond before turning to Saul, who has a weird look on his face.

“Isn’t she on the civilian ships today?”

I just nod before we hear a voice come over the comm. 

“We have the president and we are going to terminate her pregnancy unless there is viable proof that the child she carries is only human.”

I could hear the collective gasps of the crew and Saul’s grunt as he looked towards Dee for more information about the comm link. I could only listen to everything around me and I was vaguely aware of the fact that people were trying to get me to speak, but I could look off into space. They had my wife and child. If they terminated the pregnancy, I don’t know if Laura would survive the trauma. I could lose both of them. My family would be gone before it even started…

“Dee, I want to know which ship this is coming from,” I say after waking form my haze, “I want marines ready to check every square inch of each of the civilian ships until my wife and child are found. Saul,” I turned to my friend, “I need you to have Cottle ready for when we find her and ask him if the test results have come in yet. If not, tell him I want them within the hour.”

I turn back to the console and can’t help but crash my hands down on the board. I need to find Laura and our child.


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time is running out.

Four Months, 3 Week and 7 Days

I wake up on a bed locked in a room. I can remember being told to leave Kara and Lee to follow my once trusted guard, but other than that I don’t have any other recollection of what happened. There are voices right outside the hatch and there are so many that I am not sure what they are saying, but there are a lot of people out there. I can hear bits and pieces of conversation and what I can hear makes my heart stop. I have to get out of here. 

There is a knock on the hatch before the older woman from the meeting walked into the small room.

“I hope you aren’t having any side-affects from the shot we gave you,” she spoke softly.

“What the frak did you stick me with? Is it going to hurt my child?!” I yell as I think back on all of the warnings from Cottle about being careful with what I take. 

“Trust me,” she said calmly, “the worst thing that will happen is that you may get a head ache. Other than that, the shot will have no effect on the offspring.”

“Was it really necessary to knock me out?” I glare at her.

“There were things that needed to be discussed and transmissions to be made, and we didn’t want to have to worry about keeping you out of trouble,” she crossed the room to stand in front of me before continuing, “The Admiral seemed to believe that he could get the proof that we needed, but we have already waited 13 hours and nothing has been produced.”

“13 hours?!” I gasped, “I’ve been unconscious for 13 hours?!”

“Yes,” she replied, “if anything you should be thanking us for helping you catch up on some sleep.”

“What kind of proof are you looking for?” I decide to address the question that I am sure I know the answer to.

“We want undeniable proof that you are having a completely human child,” her gaze suddenly hardened at the mention of my child and I had to back up a bit.

“My child is human,” I say weakly.

“As long as we get our proof, you will have nothing to worry about,” she finished before turning around and walking out of the room.

CIC…

“Does anybody have an idea for tracing this signal?” Tigh grumbled as he watched his best friend stare off into the distance.

“Not yet, sir,” he heard one of his men say.

“Of course not,” he huffed under his breath before approaching Bill, “We will find her or get the proof in time, Bill. Cottle is working overtime to get the results in ASAP, and everyone here is trying to track that signal.”

“We only have a few more hours, Saul,” Bill finally focused on his friend, “That is not enough time to search every ship or to track the signal. If we haven’t tracked it yet, we are not going to be able to do it now. If anything we need to push Cottle to have everything ready and bide our time. Maybe we can get them to extend the deadline or Lee and Kara could find a way of contacting us.”

“Well, I talked to Tory, who had a list of the President’s ship visits for yesterday and we narrowed it down to 6, but they consist of 4 of the largest ships in the fleet and 2 of the most populated ships.”

“Sir,” Dee called from her station after hearing what Tigh had said, “We may be able to figure out which ship she is on, or at least which one is transmitting to us.”

“How?” Bill questioned quickly.

“We could have a sort of feedback loop that would help us identify the right ship if we got close enough. We would not have been able to use it on the whole fleet because it takes a while, but if we have only a few ships-”

“Do it,” Bill practically yelled, “I want Marines ready to be on a ship in 5 minutes. Dee, I want you to meet them down in the hangar with all of the necessary equipment. Saul, have the Marines start with the easiest ships to scan and get them out of the way.”

“Yes, sir,” Tigh said as he watched Bill head for the exit, “Where are you going?” 

“I’m going to make sure that Cottle has the test results in time just in case,” he yelled over his shoulder as he rushed to sickbay.

Sickbay

Cottle was nowhere to be seen when Bill walked in, but all of the other people there were rushing around frantically.

“Ishay, what is going on?” Bill pulled her aside and took in the frustrated look on her face.

“Cottle needed a sample of the President’s blood so that he could compare it to the baby’s, but we can’t find her sample anywhere.” 

“Are you sure it still around here since before New Caprica?” he asked.

“No, we took a new sample two days ago while she was here,” she looked through the boxes that were sitting to their left, “I know I put it directly into cold storage next to the sample from the fetus. Now, it is suddenly missing….but, we might actually have one from New Caprica around here somewhere. I’m sorry, Admiral, but I really have to find a sample.”

Bill nodded before asking, “Where is Jack?”

Ishay pointed in the general direction of Cottle’s office before running off to hopefully find the sample that everybody was waiting for. Bill made his way through the groups of people all searching through every box and freezer. He knocked on the door before walking in to see an exhausted Cottle staring down at a file in his hand.

“Any news?” Bill began. 

“I have run about half of the tests that I need to, but without her blood, I can’t finish them,” Cottle growled.

“Do you have any idea what could have happened to the sample?” 

“Somebody is frakking with us, Bill,” he shook his head, “her sample was under lock and key and yet it still went missing. She did not schedule an appointment, so nobody would have known ahead of time. I know that somebody must have taken it.”

Bill looked around sickbay, hoping to spot somebody who looked guilty, but there wasn’t a single person who stood out.

“Do you have any idea who could have taken it? Maybe Baltar?” Bill asked.

“Hell no!” Cottle shouted, “There is no way Baltar was in my sickbay, and the only other people who would know where I keep samples are my own people.”

Bill could not believe that this was happening. Not 24 hours ago, they were together talking about the baby and possible names, and then her guards whisked her away to start her day. Wait.

“Did Laura have guards with her when she came here for the tests?” 

“Yeah, I think Jameson and Lenard were here,” Cottle nodded, not quite understanding where Bill was going with this, “Maybe they saw somebody near the storage area?”

“Or maybe one of them took the sample,” Bill finished before he started towards the corridor, “I will get that sample for you, Doc.”

Civilian ship holding cell…

Kara shook the bars of the cell for what seemed to be the thousandth time in the past minute. Lee just rolled his eyes and went back to staring at the ceiling.

“It didn’t work the first 50 times, Kara,” he spoke up with a frustrated sigh.

“Yeah, well I am hoping that I can annoy the frak out of whoever is standing guard,” she replied caustically.

“It’s definitely annoying,” he fired back dryly.

Kara turned to face him, “We have to figure some way out of here, Lee. They could be doing who knows what to her.”

“I know!” Lee screamed, “I am getting the same feeling in my gut that settled there when all of you were stuck on New Caprica. I know that there are horrible and awful things going on right now and I knew it back then, but I still can’t do anything!” 

“Will you stop feeling sorry for yourself?!” Kara yelled, “We all went through shit down there, so let’s leave it down there. I need you to focus now and help me save the President.”

Lee started to object but decided against that in favor of just nodding. She was right. It’s time to move on and start fresh. 

“Alright,” Lee stood up, “There should be a vent somewhere that we climb through.”

“There you go, Apollo!” Kara smiled.

Sealed room across the ship…

I can’t believe they left me in here and are ignoring me. I spent a while pounding on the hatch and about an hour looking for a way out of this frakking room. It really isn’t any better than the cell that I was stuck in back on New Caprica. Sure, the light wasn’t as harsh, but there were now windows and it was pretty small. I can occasionally hear somebody pacing outside of the hatch, but other than that it is almost completely silent. I tried the air vent a while ago, but I am too short to reach it without a boost. 

I begin to think about what kind of proof I could give them or if I could talk them out of doing whatever it is that they are planning on doing. I have a feeling that I am not going to be able to get the older woman to change her mind, but maybe if I talked to one of the younger men that were walking around, I could convince them to let me out. I still can’t believe that Jameson was in on this and I wonder if Lenard was brought in on it too. If not, then maybe I could find him and we could find Lee and Kara. I am not going to think about the possibility that he is dead.

“Madame President,” a voice from outside the door called, “We are going to need you to strip down and put on the clothes that are going to be handed to you.”

“That is not going to happen,” I say harshly as cross my arms against my chest.

If the hatch was open right now, they would all be on the receiving end of my death glare. I watch as the hatch is pushed open and the elderly woman comes in followed closely by a young man in scrubs.

“We are not going to ask a third time Madame President,” the woman said, “Either change into the cotton gown or we will find somebody to help you.”

I reluctantly took the gown from the man and waited for them to turn around. They finally realized what I was waiting for and the elder woman rolled her eyes before turning her back to me, the man soon following. I quickly changed and folded my clothes before adjusting the gown one last time. As soon as they turn around and see that I am changed, Jameson is called in to escort me to another room.

“Wait,” I try to pull away from him, “Where exactly are you taking me?”

“We have a sanitary room prepared for the procedure,” Jameson replied coldly.

“What procedure?!” I struggle against his hands as the dig into my upper arms, “What the frak is going on?”

The elderly woman stared at me for a moment before walking towards me and stopping inches from my face.

“We have yet to receive proof of your pregnancy,” she glanced down to my slightly swollen stomach, “and the deadline is approaching. We need to have everything ready for when the time comes if the Admiral fails to deliver his end of the bargain.”

“What exactly do you need to have ready? What are you going to do to me?” I can hear my voice shaking with fear.

“We are going to abort the pregnancy,” she said simply before motioning for Jameson to take me out of the room.

I kicked and screamed the entire way and begged with each passer-by to help me, but they did nothing. Some people who looked at me only held disgust in their glares, but most of the people that we passed seemed to pity me. I thought I was going to be home free when a mid-aged man stopped Jameson and told him that he was harming me, but he simply gestured for us to be on our way after that. 

I could not understand why people were not stopping this. Not everyone could be okay with what was happening, right? They know that they will be punished since this is outlawed, so they all must truly believe that I am carrying a cylon child. Or maybe they didn’t know what was happening. Maybe they all think that I am just being held hostage until they get some answers…I try to analyze the looks of pity to decide if they know what is happening, but we only pass one more person before Jameson throws me into a room with a chair and medical supplies.

He led me over to the chair and I tried to kick him but he simply picked me up and set me down into the modified appliance. There were straps on the arms or the chair and stirrups that were only about a foot off the ground to hold my legs. The medical equipment that was sitting around looked clean, but there was no way to know for sure. As he strapped me in, I try to plead with him, but he only continues to tie me down to the chair and latch ankles as well. He left me alone in the room without a word and I could have cried if I didn’t think that they would send somebody in soon. 

Please hurry, Bill!

CIC…

I looked around at my crew as the voice came over the comm, “You have less than 20 minutes to come up with proof, Admiral.”

Saul motioned for somebody to get ahold of Cottle, but I didn’t see who it was.

“We are close to having it,” I swallowed before asking the question that I was dreading the answer to, “What do you plan to do if you don’t get your proof or if it is not what you want?”

“That is simple, Admiral,” there was a pregnant pause before the voice was heard again, “We will abort the child for her and save the fleet from a cylon child.”

I felt my stomach drop, “You do not have Cottle on your ship, so how the frak do you plan on doing that?”

“We have a young doctor on board who specialized in underground abortions back on Gemini,” she said simply, “He is quite skilled.”

“Skilled enough not to kill the President?” I practically growl, “Because if you harm her, or she ends up dead, I will not stop until each one of you gets the punishment you deserve.”

“She will be fine,” the woman pulled away from the mic and talked to somebody in the background before excusing herself for a minute.

I quickly turned to Dee, “Find out which ship that Gemini doctor was on before all of this happened.”

“Yes sir,” she replies, but I almost miss it because the timer above our heads is going off. 

Laura is out of time…

“Where the FRAK is Doc Cottle?” I yell.

“Right here, Bill,” he rushes to my side with a grim look in his eyes, “It took forever, but we found her sample in her guard’s quarters and I just finished the test.”

“What do the results say?”

Sanitary Room…

I look up as the man in scrubs comes through the hatch and begins to look through the medical instruments. He checks to make sure that all of the restraints are tight, and that is when I see the hint of hesitance in his eyes.

“You do not have to do this,” I say looking him directly in the eye, “You can say that I was gone when you got here.”

He seems to think about it before reaching below the chair to grab something. At first I think he is going to release me, but then I see a syringe in his hand that will probably knock me out.

“Sorry, but I don’t have a choice,” he says, laying the syringe next the other medical paraphernalia.

The hatch opens again and the elderly woman comes through holding a piece of paper in her hands. She shows the man and I watch as all of the hesitance and regret leave his eyes and are replaced by determination and hatred. He continues to look over the paper and I want so bad to know what is on the paper. He hands it back to the woman and begins to prepare everything for the abortion.

“What is that?!” I yell at the woman as she smiles down at me.

“This is our proof,” she says simply.

“Proof of what? What does it say?” I try to sit up but am stopped by the man as he straps another restraint across my chest.

“Proof that you are caring a baby that should never see the light of day,” she turns the paper over to show me the writing, “Congratulations, Madame President…you got knocked up by a cylon. So I guess the only question left is which cylon is the father.”

I am too shocked to say anything as she nods to the man and then heads to the hatch and makes her exit.


End file.
